Director Equity Award Limit in LTIPs: How Companies are Addressing it this Proxy Season

This proxy season has revealed an intensifying trend to address limitations on grants to non-employee directors in many long-term incentive plans (“LTIPs”). Based on a review of approximately 50 LTIPs submitted for approval this proxy season thus far by Delaware companies, a majority of such LTIPs now include a director-specific limit on the size of annual non-employee director grants and a handful generally permit grants only in pre-determined amounts as set forth in the LTIPs.  READ MORE

Trump Administration Targets Federal Compensation

The Trump administration’s new management agenda, released earlier this week, has significant implications for federal pay and benefits.

The agenda frames the issue by noting that “it is important to appropriately compensate personnel based on mission needs and labor market dynamics,” something the existing compensation system fails to do. The document then repeats the fiscal 2019 budget proposal to forgo an across-the-board pay increase while realigning “incentives by enhancing performance-based pay and slowing the frequency of tenure-based step increases.” READ MORE

New wage-gap data increases pressure on banks to justify CEO pay

It’s no secret that bank CEOs are paid handsomely. But how their compensation stacks up against workers further down the corporate ladder has been a mystery for years.

Companies have begun pulling back the curtain over the past few weeks, disclosing ratios that compare pay packages for CEOs with average workers’ salaries. The disclosures are required this year for all publicly traded companies, under a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act. READ MORE

Verizon’s retiree shareholders seek to block above-market executive pay

Verizon’s activist retirees have launched two proxy proposals on this year’s ballot for the annual shareholders' meeting in an effort to keep the telco’s executive management team more accountable.

One of the proposals calls to claw back earnings from executives whose conduct harms shareholders, while another prohibits above-market earnings for senior executives on certain retirement and deferred income accounts.  READ MORE

Pension fund CalSTRS opposes Tesla's compensation package for Musk

U.S. public pension fund CalSTRS said on Wednesday it is opposed to Tesla's recommendation to support Chief Executive Elon Musk's compensation arrangement at the electric car maker's shareholder meeting.

The Silicon Valley billionaire's compensation package announced in January involves no salary or cash bonus but sets rewards based on Tesla's market value rising to $650 billion over the next 10 years. READ MORE

Government Needs to Rethink Employee Compensation Plans

The Office of Management and Budget is committed to improving government’s performance. But while reorganizing and eliminating unnecessary jobs could reduce costs, that does not necessarily lead to better results. Reorganizations actually tend to disrupt working relationships so, for a time at least, performance often declines. Real gains come from assembling essential talent, adopting management practices that encourage collaboration and focus on organizational goals, and empowering employees to proactively achieve goals. READ MORE

Wells Fargo's CEO is getting a 36% raise after the bank's nightmare year

At his own recommendation, Sloan isn't receiving a cash bonus, according to filings late Wednesday. The CEO cited "significant but incomplete progress on addressing compliance and operational risk-management issues."

That's one way to describe the series of scandals that have rocked Wells Fargo (WFC) for the past year and a half, prompting unprecedented sanctions in February from the Federal Reserve.  READ MORE

Elon Musk Inspires Boom-or-Bust Compensation Packages for CEOs

If Elon Musk can do it , I can too. Right?

That's apparently the newest mantra of corporate CEOs hoping to get their boards of directors and shareholders to approve a potentially enormous payday. What I'm talking about is companies modeling compensation packages after Tesla 's (NASDAQ: TSLA) performance award package for Elon Musk that may pay him $78 billion over the next 10 years . Now, Axon Enterprise 's (NASDAQ: AAXN) CEO, Rick Smith, is following with his own massive performance package that may misalign his interests and those of long-term shareholders.  READ MORE

Sanders targets CEO compensation

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Wednesday asked Pentagon Comptroller David Norquist during a Senate Budget Committee hearing to provide him with a report detailing how the Defense Department can effectively negotiate CEO salaries of defense contractors. 

Norquist said he was unaware of anything the Defense Department could do to impact the compensation of CEOs at private companies, but said U.S. taxpayers “should be paying for the service that we receive.” READ MORE

Employers Should Review Compensation Systems

If your company has not reviewed its compensation systems to ensure pay equity for female employees, now is the time to do so. In the fall of 2017, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released its 2018-2021 Strategic Plan announcing pay equity would be one of its six major priorities. Since then, four high-profile settlements have demonstrated the EEOC will be vigorously enforcing the Equal Pay Act and Title VII to ensure wage equality.  READ MORE