Employers’ reliance on salary history in hiring and compensation decisions is a textbook example of structural bias. While the common practice of asking a job applicant about their prior salary may seem innocuous on the surface, it can have unintended, harmful consequences, including barring qualified candidates from job opportunities and systematically relegating women and workers of color—particularly women of color—to lower pay that may have been set lower because of discrimination. READ MORE
Some Google Cloud Salespeople Took Home Over $1 Million Salaries. That May Come To An End.
One of Thomas Kurian’s first moves as Google Cloud’s CEO when he joined the company in 2019 was lifting a cap put in place on sales commissions. He thought the move would lure elite salespeople to join the company’s growing cloud computing division, with the promise of a big payday.
Some did just that, with a few top-performing salespeople making over $1 million in 2020. But those days may be coming to an end. READ MORE
Restricted Stock Units Unpacked
For many startup companies, compensating directors, officers, and employees can pose quite the challenge. While startup companies want to lure top talent, and incentivize workplace continuity and employee buy-in, they are often stressed for capital, and need to keep overhead costs low. One common approach to balancing these interests is for companies to offer restricted stock units (“RSUs,”) to their directors, officers, and employees as a form of compensation. READ MORE
Wall Street warns Cuomo tax hikes could trigger exodus of top earners
Executives at some of Wall Street's biggest firms warned New York lawmakers that raising taxes could cause high-income earners who fled the state during the coronavirus pandemic to leave permanently. READ MORE
Does performance management have a brand issue?
If you have an in-house marketing team, go ask them the impact negative brand equity can have on a business. A good brand shapes the way in which people see and feel about a certain product, service or process. But a brand bad can be a ‘success killer’. READ MORE
How You Know When Your Recognition Program Is Working
Over the last few decades, it has become increasingly clear that employee satisfaction and engagement have less to do with material gifts and much more to do with the quality of the work culture.
Everyone enjoys receiving a gift, but if there is no sincere connection between the giver and receiver it becomes an empty gesture. That intangible connection is what many HR departments are chasing when they field companywide employee recognition programs. READ MORE
The Intersection of Human Capital, Risk and ESG
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns were not invented during the pandemic but, as companies grappled with massive health, social, climate and financial risks last year, they accelerated and expanded their focus on ESG-related issues.
Today, corporate boards and management teams around the world are considering ESG in the context of mitigating risk and creating value for all stakeholders. READ MORE
Why Executive Compensation Clawbacks Don’t Work
The executive pay “clawback,” an idea that had its debut during the discussion around the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, has become an increasingly common provision in executive compensation packages. In theory, clawback policies enable companies to recover incentive pay granted to executives for achieving financial performance targets on the basis of decisions and actions that subsequently turn out to be ethically and legally questionable, and which impose significant monetary and reputational liabilities on the company. READ MORE
Progressives aren't giving up fight for $15 minimum wage, say legislation must be passed this year
Progressives Friday pushed for a $15 minimum wage, saying Democrats owe their constituents a living wage this year, and if they don't deliver, it could cost them at the ballot box in 2022.
"We need to pass a $15 minimum wage by the end of the year, [and] it has to be part of must-pass legislation," said Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
Khanna organized a press call Friday with many progressive Democratic lawmakers, union leaders and activists who demanded the $15 minimum wage despite setbacks earlier this year. READ MORE
Here’s How Much Men vs. Women Earn at Every Age
While strides have been made toward equal pay across all genders and races, statistics reveal that even in 2021, Americans are still not paid equally. Women have made gains in their decades-long fight for pay equity, but disparities remain. READ MORE
Here’s What the US Minimum Wage Was the Year You Were Born
Although minimum wage is not nearly as low as it used to be, America still has a long way to go when it comes to compensating its workers. The federal minimum wage is currently at $7.25, a number that has stayed the same since 2009. READ MORE
What Income Level Is Considered Middle Class in Each State?
What is considered middle class? It might take more money than you think to reach this income tier. The Pew Research Center defines middle class, or middle-income households, as those with incomes that are two-thirds to double the U.S. median household income. READ MORE
How Do You Stack Up to the Average Income in Your State?
Understanding what the average income is in your state can help you determine if you’re ahead of the curve or behind it when it comes to your own salary. Averages are typically measured in two ways: mean and median. Mean or “average” income takes the total amount of earnings across a sample and divides it by the number of participants. Median income, on the other hand, is the midway point of a sample, with half the people sampled earning above the median and half earning less. READ MORE
A Summary of Key Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act
On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (“ARPA”), a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 economic stimulus bill. ARPA contains provisions affecting employee benefits and executive compensation, including temporary fully subsidized COBRA premiums, a temporary increase in dependent care assistance dollar limits, relief for single employer and multiemployer defined benefit pension plans, and the expansion of the pool of covered employees subject to the compensation limitations under Internal Revenue Code Section 162(m). READ MORE
Equity Compensation: Why Millennials Like It and How Entrepreneurs Can Use It
Entrepreneurs already have to muster a great deal of time and energy to get their businesses off the ground. Covid-19 hasn’t done them any favors: A survey by Alignable in September 2020 found that 60% of small businesses were still suffering financially from the pandemic and 42% of owners were at risk of closure.
It is not clear how much federal stimulus can change that outlook until consumer confidence rebounds, but with or without a recession, entrepreneurs will continue to find that payroll costs often compete with other strategic priorities. If they do have the cash flow to compete for talent on salary, leaders may need the money for other aspects of the business. Equity compensation is a way to attract high-quality employees and help keep payroll manageable. READ MORE
Stimulus Bill Includes Executive Compensation Changes That Might Affect NQDC Plans
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the new $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, includes provisions related to the treatment of executive compensation under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 162(m). READ MORE
Spring Ahead, Fall Back, Pay Now, Pay Later: Daylight Savings Time And The FLSA
This Sunday was Daylight Savings Time and we pushed the clocks ahead by one hour. This is, on a human level, a welcome event, as it signals winter’s end. Now, I can fling away any vestiges of Seasonal Affective Disorder and turn my attention to outdoor activities. Employers, however, must be vigilant on the particular day that this event takes place, as there is a FLSA implication to it. READ MORE
Biden Calls For Back Hazard Pay
President Biden recently put out a statement “calling on employers to meet their obligations to frontline essential workers and provide back hazard pay.” While the idea of “back” hazard pay is somewhat counterintuitive, as back pay would not encourage essential workers to stay at their jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this is not the first time that policymakers have floated the idea of mandating national hazard pay. Congressional Democrats included hazard pay in their Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act in May, while Senator Mitt Romney introduced his own proposal the same month. READ MORE
Starbucks shareholders vote against executive pay plan
Starbucks shareholders rejected the coffee chain’s executive compensation proposal, in a rare admonition of an S&P 500 company.
The resolution is not binding and likely won’t impact the board’s decision. However, the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said only 10 S&P 500 companies have had shareholders reject annual say-on-pay resolutions in the last year, based on data from ISS Corporate Solutions. READ MORE
Sanders wants tax penalties for companies where CEOs are paid 50 times more than average workers
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Wednesday introduced legislation to apply tax penalties on companies that pay their CEOs at least 50 times more than the median worker. READ MORE