This is a serious, bottom-line issue.

Although owners' motives may include bottom-line issues like fear of litigation and retention, ultimately all benefit.

The business community," he added, "is now saying that the dropout problem is not just a social issue but also an economic, bottom-line issue.

"That's a bottom-line issue for a lot of people."

But child labor is not the bottom-line issue confronting the chocolate business.

It is a bottom-line issue: innovative ads simply provide more bang for the buck.

It was only last summer that the Israeli government and the Palestinian people were negotiating on what were bottom-line issues.

It is in the interest of all the contracting parties that the bottom-line issues that remain outstanding are debated, resolved and finalised.

Senior Japanese officials describe them all as bottom-line issues defying easy solutions.

"It's not the bottom-line issue for me," he says.