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Halliburton Co. shareholders have rejected for the first time an executive compensation plan that management had touted to line up with company returns and retain key employees.
In a tally at the annual shareholder meeting, close to 364 million votes were opposed to the nonbinding advisory item, and nearly 270 million were in favor of the proposed plan, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. READ MORE
Chief executives at the biggest public companies got an 8.5 percent raise last year, bringing the median pay package for CEOs to $11.7 million. Across the S&P 500, compensation for CEOs is often hundreds of times higher than typical workers.
The pay increase matches the bump that CEOs received in 2016, according to salary, stock and other compensation data analyzed by Equilar for The Associated Press. READ MORE
As economic uncertainty roils the country, the income gap between top executives and everyday employees continues to grow ever wider.
This year, thanks to a rule in the 2010 Dodd-Frank banking regulation law, publicly traded corporations in the United States had to begin comparing the pay of their chief executives to the median compensation of other employees at the company. The results, collected in the Equilar 200 Highest-Paid C.E.O. Rankings, were predictably striking. READ MORE
Old Rule
Except for special rules that apply to public companies, the reasonable compensation of all employees is fully deductible as an ordinary and necessary business expense. Before this year the compensation deduction of a covered employee in a public company was generally capped at $1 million, except for commissions and performance compensation. A public company could deduct a covered employee’s commissions and performance-based compensation. To be deductible, performance-based compensation had to be attributable to a written, objective performance standard, established by the company’s independent compensation committee on or before the 90th day of the service period, and approved by a separate shareholder vote. The amount of the performance-based compensation had to be reduced to a formula, although the employer could retain the discretion to reduce or eliminate (but not increase) the compensation awarded. READ MORE
Employees frequently have to deal with demands for improved performance. The demands are typically accompanied by simplistic solutions, such as fire more people, tighten your performance standards or improve your IT systems. Rarely is there an acknowledgement that performance problems may be caused by inadequate resources, unrealistic expectations or a bureaucracy that is difficult to navigate. READ MORE
Beginning this year public companies must compare the pay of their CEO with that of their median employee. Required by Dodd-Frank, disclosure of this CEO pay ratio has produced some jaw-dropping numbers. Aptiv, a maker of auto parts, reported that its CEO made 2,526 time more that its median employee. The CEO pay ratio was 2,483 to 1 at the temp agency ManpowerGroup, 1,804 to 1 at amusement park owner Six Flags, and 1,465 to 1 at Del Monte Produce. READ MORE
A woman makes about 80 cents for every dollar a man does nationwide, but that shortfall can vary widely depending on where you live. READ MORE
For decades, publicly traded companies have disclosed their CEO pay. And ever since, they've been dogged by criticism that the pay is often not justified by the company's performance.
Starting this year, those companies also have to disclose their median worker's pay, as well as the ratio between that worker's compensation and the CEO's. READ MORE
Public companies are required for the first time this year to compare the compensation of their chief executive officer to that of the median employee in an annual Securities and Exchange Commission filing. As expected, the pay ratios so far show that CEOs in many cases are making hundreds of times more than the Average Joe and Jane. READ MORE
The sweeping tax reform enacted in December 2017 will significantly increase the tax cost of executive compensation in publicly held corporations where the compensation for each of the top five executives exceeds $1 million. Nonetheless, it is unlikely that these corporations will reduce the executive compensation to offset the increased tax cost, which will likely be shifted to public shareholders. READ MORE
Effective December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Act”) made significant changes to certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (the “Code”).
While there was much discussion and analysis of the Act leading up to its enactment, the Act contains many changes to the federal income tax treatment of executive compensation and/or employee benefits of which corporate executives, officers and human resource personnel should be aware to ensure the proper federal income tax treatment and reporting of such items, while satisfying the financial goals to be attained by the recipient employees. READ MORE
I don’t believe that any court has decided in favor of plaintiffs alleging that the payment of executive compensation was a breach of fiduciary duty for a waste of corporate assets—until now. The reason is that (in the face of the business judgment rule) corporate waste is very difficult to prove. But last week, the Delaware Chancery Court allowed plaintiffs to continue with their shareholder derivative claims against the board of CBS Corporation in Feuer v. Redstone. READ MORE
The U.S. economy showed signs of blooming in April following a surprisingly weak March as the unemployment rate fell to 3.9% and 164,000 jobs were added, but wage growth has remained sluggish, according to today’s employment situation report for April, released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). READ MORE
A federal judge on Tuesday said Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, +1.38% owed money to home mortgage consultants and private mortgage bankers for not appropriately compensating them for work breaks to which they were entitled. READ MORE
With a half-billion-dollar pay package for 2017, Evan Spiegel claims the crown of an elite group of corporate leaders.
Spiegel, 27, got the $504.5 million package when Snap Inc., the firm he co-founded in college, went public last year, making him the highest-paid executive of a publicly traded U.S. company, according to the Bloomberg Pay Index. READ MORE
Except for special rules that apply to public companies, the reasonable compensation of all employees is fully deductible as an ordinary and necessary business expense. Before this year the compensation deduction of a covered employee in a public company was generally capped at $1 million, except for commissions and performance compensation. READ MORE
Median pay reached $12.1 million for CEOs of the biggest U.S. companies in 2017, a new post-recession high, as profits and stock prices soared. Most S&P 500 CEOs received raises of 9.7% or better last year, according to a WSJ analysis of data from MyLogIQ. Scroll to see the highest-paid CEOs, and the lowest, as well as comparisons of shareholder returns and worker pay. READ MORE