Say-on-pay laws increase company valuations, study finds

When shareholders have a say on executive pay, CEO salaries decline and company valuations rise, according to a University of Georgia study.

By analyzing financial data from more than 17,000 publicly traded companies in countries that have passed say-on-pay laws and countries that haven't, researchers found such laws tie CEO pay more closely to their company's performance and increase compensation equality among top managers. READ MORE

How Employee Incentive Programs Can Benefit from Behavioral Economics

When James Brewer stepped into his role as U.S. Director of Reward and Recognition at pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly in 2011, it was going through a transformation. He was tasked with coming up with a new incentive plan for employees—particularly its sales reps—that aligned with the company's new corporate strategy, Brewer explained to an audience at WorldatWork's Total Rewards 2017 conference in Washington D.C.  Monday. In other words, he needed to be able to motivate and engage employees in a way that fit with the company's new direction—that was now both customer and team-focused. READ MORE

Tips For Building An Effective Total Rewards Communications Strategy

The economy is expected to continue to grow steadily, which means more people are working and fewer people are out of work. This is great news, of course, but it presents a special challenge for employers as they compete to attract increasingly job-savvy employees — either the few who are out of work or those who are already employed at other companies. A growing economy means workers have a lot of options; the only way to win the best talent is to position your company as a great place to work. READ MORE

How Do I Count My Performance Share Awards? Let Me Count the Ways

Wow, there are 16 different ways to count performance share awards! Well, there may not be 16 different ways, but there are 16 different purposes for which a company must count its performance share awards, some of which are the same, but many of which are different. When a company or compensation committee awards performance shares or performance share units, the number of shares delivered to the participant generally depends upon the degree of satisfaction of the performance goals set forth in the award agreement. READ MORE

It’s Time for Trump to Do Something About High CEO Pay

The House is expected to vote Thursday on a Wall Street deregulation plan that would roll back several Obama-era CEO pay reforms, including a ban on banker bonuses that encourage excessive risk, and a new regulation that requires publicly held corporations to report the ratio between their CEO and median worker pay. But instead of rolling back modest pay reforms already on the books, lawmakers should be pushing for bolder solutions, such as using tax and government contracting policies that reward firms with reasonable CEO pay levels. READ MORE

Consider compensation plans that build a business

It's possible to compensate employees in ways that motivate them beyond what a simple salary will, but it takes planning and tweaking.

The end result should be happier employees, increased revenue and lowered expenses, therefore higher profits overall, says John Felkins, director of the All Access division for an organization called EntreLeadership, a business advisory group headed by Dave Ramsey. Ramsey is the money management guru who built an international business organization, starting from his living-room-based writing and speaking business. Felkins and EntreLeadership recently hosted a webinar on employee compensation. READ MORE

A millennial's math on compensation

I graduated from business school with roughly $200,000 of debt and a choice. I could manage investments in the family office of one of the world’s top hedge funds or I could take a job at the Connecticut Green Bank. The difference in salary and bonus was, to put it mildly, appreciable. I chose the Green Bank.

For the (many) people who measure the worth of a job by its paycheck, my choice is mystifying. They rationalize my decision as the admirable, perhaps naïve, pursuit of meaningful work: I’m a public servant. I’m helping society. I feel good about what I do. Yes, this is all true, but such assessments are incomplete for three reasons. First, they conflate a job with a career. Second, they oversimplify the math on compensation. Third, they ignore a fundamental shift underway in the business community: The idea that we have to choose between "doing good" for the world and "doing well" for ourselves is increasingly misguided. READ MORE

Nursing home CEO wants $100M payout amid bankruptcy threat

The landlord of America’s second-biggest nursing home chain is haggling with the company’s top executive over a lavish compensation package, even as the chain teeters on the edge of bankruptcy, sources told The Post.

Paul Ormond, CEO of HCR ManorCare, is demanding $100 million in deferred compensation that private equity giant Carlyle Group promised to pay him as part of a $6.3 billion buyout of the company in 2007, according to sources close to the situation. READ MORE