The era of salary negotiation is ending

If you’re looking for a new job right now, one of your main motivating factors is likely to be that you’d like a bit more money in your pocket.

Of course, there are other factors at play: plentiful tech layoffs and federal worker cuts have placed many Americans back into the labor market too. Career progression is another reason employees seek to move jobs; instead of stagnating, they’re searching for fresh opportunities for upskilling and professional development. READ MORE

ESG metrics and executive pay: A comparative analysis of payouts

On the surface, ESG executive incentive payouts seem to be in line with financial metrics, but a nuanced — and different — picture emerges when you look closely at specific metrics.

Sustainability, or environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics are commonplace across executive incentive plans, as evidenced in WTW’s 2024 ESG Incentive Metrics Study. This is perhaps unsurprising, given many companies have incorporated sustainability into business strategy, therefore making it a key area on which to focus attention and drive performance via performance goals and incentives. READ MORE

The Compensation Clawback Rules: The Rules That Haven’t Changed Much of Anything

Section 954 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 required the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue rules mandating the recovery of incentive-based compensation in the case of a financial restatement (“clawbacks”).

The SEC issued proposed clawback rules in 2015. These rules were met with broad criticism. They then basically sat untouched until late 2021, when the SEC reopened them for discussion. READ MORE

Workers turn to 'polyworking' to combat frozen salaries and inflation

As workers face frozen salaries, inflation and fear of layoffs, some have decided to branch out from their traditional careers. They're taking on side jobs to bring in additional income and provide a backup plan should they find themselves out of work, or adding second, third and sometimes fourth jobs — what some call “polyworking” — to the mix.

Take Katelyn Cusick, 29. She beautifies displays as a visual merchandiser for Patagonia at her full-time job. Then she works a side gig managing social media influencers for a German shoe brand for 10 to 15 hours per week. She also has an Etsy shop where she sells paintings. If that wasn’t enough, she ushers at concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area — a way to see live shows for free. READ MORE

How deferred compensation plans help attract and retain top talent

In today’s tight labor market, companies are seeking competitive advantages to attract and retain top talent. In this Crain’s Quick Take, Mindi Johnson, an employee benefits attorney at Foster Swift, outlines how deferred compensation plans can be a strategic tool for motivating and rewarding highly compensated employees.

Johnson explains that traditional salary and benefits packages often fall short for key executives due to federal limits on qualified plans. Non-qualified deferred compensation plans help bridge that gap. “These types of programs can help a company accomplish its goals in retaining that ‘top hat’ group of management by providing an attractive compensation and benefits package,” she says. READ MORE

Job seekers: Don't be swayed by secondary market's 10% bump to year-end bonuses

private market professionals eagerly await year-end bonuses, a top Wall Street compensation consultant warns against chasing the biggest annual payout. For the second consecutive year, secondaries fund managers will receive bonuses that are at least 10% higher than last year, while PE and VC bonuses will be mostly flat, according to new data from financial compensation consultant Johnson Associates. As

But, the stable career choice remains in the two primary asset classes, according to the firm's founder and managing director, Alan Johnson. READ MORE

Why The 10-Year TSR Is The Premier Metric For Long-Term Value Creation

In today's volatile markets, measuring corporate success demands a long view. The 10-year total shareholder return (TSR)—which includes stock price appreciation plus reinvested dividends—stands out as the premier indicator of sustained value creation. Strong long-term returns also reflect sustained customer support. Unlike shorter horizons like the 3-year TSR, it captures fundamental drivers such as return on invested capital (ROIC), earnings growth, and customer loyalty, while filtering out temporary noise.

It even signals survival risks: firms ignoring long-term TSR often face restructurings or decline. Below, I highlight insights from 11 key studies and cautionary tales from seven iconic companies that underwent major splits as a result of long-term underperformance. READ MORE

Crypto Payroll Takes Over Silicon Valley: Hype vs Reality

The tech world is buzzing with news of companies switching to crypto payroll, and guess who's leading the charge? Yep, Gen Z. They're pushing companies to explore the idea of stablecoin salaries. Why? Well, to keep things stable and efficient in a market that's anything but. Let's take a closer look at this whole crypto payroll trend, what it brings to the table, and the hurdles that come along with it. READ MORE

How Crypto is Reshaping Compensation

In a world where traditional payroll systems struggle against economic uncertainty, cryptocurrency and stablecoins are emerging as game changers for businesses. As startups dive into the complexities of adopting crypto payroll, the role of advanced technologies like Chainlink becomes paramount. This article will delve into how crypto payroll is changing the salary landscape, the advantages of integrating digital assets, and the future of payroll in an ever-evolving financial climate. READ MORE

Elon Musk presses for $1 trillion pay plan because he needs to influence Tesla's future 'robot army'

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk made an unusual plea at the end of the company's earnings call, urging shareholders to approve his new $1 trillion pay package and claiming, among other things, he wouldn't be comfortable building "a robot army" without control over it.

During the Q&A portion of the call with investors following the company's Q3 miss, Musk was asked about the present challenges in bringing the Optimus robot to market. READ MORE

Cathie Wood blasts the proxy firms who say Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package is just too rich

Investor Cathie Wood, a longtime Tesla bull known for first investing in the company a decade ago at $13 per share, condemned the growing resistance to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s potential $1 trillion pay package. Over the weekend, the ARK Invest CEO suggested the financial system that’s enabling the pushback against it is the one with the problem, not the company that wants to make the world’s richest man richer by such a magnitude. READ MORE

Here’s the Salary Needed To Be Middle Class vs. the Salary Needed for the American Dream in Every State

With rising cost of living, inflation and tariff costs (along with struggling employment levels), is the middle class still capable of attaining the American dream?

To answer such a question, GOBankingRates united two separate studies — one that determined the middle-class income range in each state and one that determined the cost of the American dream on a state-by-state basis — into a single analysis. READ MORE

3 ChatGPT Prompts To Boost Your Salary Up To 47% In 2026

Anyone can write a ChatGPT prompt. But not everyone can write a good prompt. It took me months of experimentation for me to realize this.

So many professionals get hyped up about AI tools that they miss the point. Although generative AI has been shown to boost salaries by as much as 47% (AWS and Indeed research), it’s not the AI tool itself that will significantly improve your salary or revenue. It’s generative AI skills…what you do with it, how you prompt it. READ MORE

5 strategies to help stay ahead of global compensation trends

New research released this week on global compensation trends highlights the critical importance of thinking outside the box on the employee value proposition—especially in an environment being rapidly reshaped by artificial intelligence and macro forces like economic uncertainty.

The State of Global Compensation Report, from global payroll and HR firm Deel, produced in partnership with equity management platform Carta, aggregated data from Deel’s 300,000-plus worker contracts across more than 150 countries to identify emerging global compensation trends. READ MORE

ISS challenges Tesla’s $1 trillion Musk compensation proposal

Tesla’s proposed $1 trillion compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk is facing renewed scrutiny after proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) urged investors to vote against it. The recommendation, issued Friday, adds pressure ahead of Tesla’s Nov. 6 shareholder meeting and intensifies debate over what could become the largest executive pay package in corporate history.

ISS cited the “astronomical” size and design of the stock-based award, which could still grant Musk tens of billions of dollars even if many of its ambitious goals are not fully met. The proposal includes milestones that would boost Tesla’s market capitalization to $8.5 trillion and require the delivery of 20 million vehicles, one million robotaxis, and $400 billion in adjusted core earnings over the next decade. READ MORE