When we hear “wage gap,” we automatically think of the “gender gap” between the salaries of men and women. This is a demonstrable problem, but an even bigger one, affecting men and women alike, is the pay gap between executives and the people who work for them. READ MORE
Snap gave away massive stock awards as it competed for talent last year
If you want to know how a company like Snap can lose almost $3.5 billion in a year, look no further than stock rewards to engineers.
In 2017, the year it went public, Snap recorded a stock-based compensation expense of $2.6 billion, accounting for 77 percent of its net loss and more than three times the amount it generated in revenue. READ MORE
Should Companies Disclose Employee Compensation?
Organizational transparency is a much contested topic in boardrooms and lunchrooms these days, with two primary questions confronting leaders:
1. How much information should be shared inside the organization?
2. Do we have a choice?
A recent example suggests that the disclosure debate might well be extended to information that generally has been considered off-limits: compensation data. READ MORE
How Executive Compensation Changes Affect Employers
The new tax law strengthened a provision that prevents public companies from getting a tax deduction for compensation to top executives in excess of $1 million—a change that practitioners and taxpayers are still grappling with. READ MORE
New Executive Compensation Plan A Signal To Sell Tesla
Everyone already knows that Tesla (TSLA) loses a great deal of money and has massive growth expectations baked into its stock price (I’ve addressed these concerns here and here). Despite these obvious concerns, the stock has continued to soar on the hope that the company’s technological advantage will allow it to dominate the growing electronic vehicle (EV) market and play a big role in energy storage. READ MORE
Shareholder proposal to exclude impact of share buybacks on executive compensation
In 2016, the AFL-CIO submitted several shareholder proposals designed to curb the impact of stock buybacks on executive compensation. (See this PubCo post.) The question at the time was whether we would see many more of these proposals. However, amid significant media and academic criticism, as well as relatively high stock valuations, the levels of stock buybacks declined, and the anticipated wave of proposals on buybacks did not materialize. However, the new tax act is expected to trigger a new spike in the levels of stock buybacks. (See this MarketWatch article.) Perhaps with that in mind, one of the most prolific proponents of shareholder proposals has submitted a proposal to eliminate the impact of stock buybacks in determining executive compensation. Will these proposals now become a thing? READ MORE
U.S. CEOs seen earning 140 times more than the typical worker
A group of U.S. chief executive officers earned 140 times more last year than the median workers at their companies, according to a survey that gives a first glimpse of newly required pay ratio disclosures.
Workers at the 356 public companies included in the study received $60,000 in median compensation, Equilar said in the report released Thursday, which didn't include CEO pay figures. READ MORE
Wells Fargo Is 3rd Top U.S. Bank Closing Gender Pay Gap
The momentum for disclosing gender pay gaps at major U.S. banks is moving at lightning speed. Six banks and financial institutions were targeted last year for gender pay disparity. Today, Wells Fargo became the third bank to agree to report on and work to close gender and racial pay gaps. In response, Arjuna Capital withdrew its gender pay shareholder proposal. READ MORE
How Does the Boss’s Pay Compare to the Rank and File?
America’s biggest companies are about to tell the world for the first time how compensation for their chief executives compares with what they pay their rank-and-file workers. READ MORE
How to deal with job candidate compensation questions in 2018
The laws for evaluating and discussing employee compensation are undergoing dramatic changes. Under these laws — including one in California that took effect at the start of the year — you can no longer ask a candidate about their past compensation. In some cases, even if it’s voluntarily provided without prompting, you can’t make future offers based on that information. READ MORE
10 ways compensation committees can best guide executive pay and performance
As CEO incentive pay packages bring attention to transparency issues in executive compensation, a group of directors and chief risk officers from The Directors and Chief Risk Officers Group published a set of guiding principles for compensation committees around the governance of risk related to pay and performance.
The report aims to give a company's board of directors and board-level compensation committees guidelines for the governance of risks linked to an organization's compensation culture.
Here are 10 guidelines for compensation committees to best guide executive pay and performance, according to the report. READ MORE
New tax law fuels changes to benefits and compensation programs
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is fueling changes to corporate America’s employee benefits, compensation and executive pay programs, according to a survey by Willis Towers Watson.
Of 333 large and midsize employers who responded, 49% are considering making a change to at least one of these programs either this year or next. READ MORE
How Elon Musk could get tens of billions from new Tesla compensation plan
Tesla has installed a new compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk that would reward him handsomely if he can build the electric vehicle automaker into "one of the most valuable companies in the world." READ MORE
Working for a Shamed Company Can Hurt Your Future Compensation
In the blink of an instant, a corporate brand can turn from sterling to tarnished. Just ask Volkswagen or Wells Fargo—two prestigious names that have become associated with scandal in recent years, and now become synonymous with shady corporate practices. READ MORE
Tax Cuts & Jobs Act: Tax Reform Implications for Executive Compensation and Employee Benefits
The 2017 tax reform act referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Act) was signed into law Dec. 22, 2017. The law affects executive compensation and employee benefits in several ways. This alert provides a brief overview of some of the changes. READ MORE
Issues for Compensation Committees to Consider When Grappling With Changes to 162(m) and the Death of the Performance-Based Compensation Exemption
As much has been written regarding the repeal of the performance-based exception to the $1 million dollar deduction limitation under Code Section 162(m) under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the Act), we have highlighted certain issues that compensation committees should consider in the post-Act era as they review 2017 bonus payouts and chart a course forward without having the benefit of the performance-based compensation exception. The Act makes the following key changes to 162(m) effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017: READ MORE
Tax-Exempt Organizations Face a New Excise Tax on Compensation Paid to Executives
President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 on Dec. 22, 2017. Effective as of Jan. 1, 2018, the Act adds Section 4960 to the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), which imposes a new 21 percent excise tax on “Compensation” paid by an “Applicable Tax-Exempt Organization” with respect to employment of any Covered Employee. The employer is responsible to pay the excise tax, even if the amount paid is determined to be reasonable under the intermediate sanction rules. For purposes of Section 4960, the following terms are defined: READ MORE
Why workers are saying 'I quit!'
Money talks. And it's also a main reason employees walk.
More than a third of employers expect to lose more workers this year, with 45% citing salary as the main reason behind the resignations, according to a new data from Glassdoor. READ MORE
New Tax Law Impact on Employee Benefits and Compensation
At the end of 2017, President Trump signed into law The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) that includes significant changes in the employee benefits area, most of which became effective on January 1, 2018. The following is a brief description of some of the notable changes, and we expect additional guidance on many of the Act’s provisions. READ MORE
How stocks are leaving wages in the dust
Wages were mostly flat again last year, even as the stock market rose to record heights. This is kind of what we expect nowadays: The divide between Main Street and Wall Street has become a staple of stump speeches everywhere. READ MORE