As employers come under increasing pressure to boost pay for performance and employ fair pay strategies in the workplace, they’re rethinking the programs they already have in place, according to a new survey from Willis Towers Watson. READ MORE
Why Due Diligence Is Different For Roles Biased To Regular, Variable And Equity Compensation
As an executive onboarding into a new role, due diligence is a critical part of mitigating risk before accepting a job. The three main risks are always organizational, role and personal. But the components of those risks vary across roles with different compensation compositions. READ MORE
Minimum wage won’t let you afford a 2-bedroom rental anywhere in the U.S., report says
There's not a single state, county or metropolitan area in the entire United States where a full-time worker earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour can afford a modest 2-bedroom apartment.
And if those workers wanted to? They'd have to work 122 hours a week. Every week. All year. READ MORE
Does Creating Owners Mean Sharing Equity?
We think a good definition of employee engagement—real engagement—is employees who think and act like owners. Like businesspeople. Top companies foster this kind of involvement, sharing responsibility and rewards with people at every level of the organization. READ MORE
For the biggest group of American workers, wages aren't flat. They're falling.
The average hourly wage paid to a key group of American workers has fallen from last year when accounting for inflation, as an economy that appears strong by several measures continues to fail to create bigger paychecks, the federal government said Tuesday. READ MORE
Compensation plans entice good employees to stay
When it comes to employees, it is clear that good employees build meaningful relationships with customers, increase profitability, and give business owners more time to think strategically about the business.
Equally clear is that many business owners are interested in improving employee retention, as the cost to acquire and train new employees is considerable – especially for employees that are key contributors. READ MORE
Why Goldman Sachs Should Change Its Compensation Culture
In the 1990s, Albert Meyer was an accounting professor at Spring Arbor University, a small Christian college in Michigan. He had a background in forensic accounting, and through due diligence on one of the University's donors, exposed one of the biggest Ponzi-style frauds of the decade. READ MORE
Punishing Employers For Low Wage Workers Will Stigmatize Workers On Welfare
Democrats on Capitol Hill want to follow Seattle’s lead and tax large employers for the costs with which they allegedly burden taxpayers. The basic idea is if your jobs don’t pay workers enough to get them off all government benefits, then you are freeloading on the system and government should tax you to get the rest of your “fair share” of those workers’ living expenses.This all sounds compassionate and is designed to push corporations into paying workers more, but in reality such laws will have the unintended consequence of punishing and stigmatizing low wage workers. READ MORE
Minimum Wages Might Mean Fewer Benefits, So Let's Not #Fightfor15
A recent working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research by the economists Jeffrey Clemens, Lisa B. Kahn, and Jonathan Meer should make us pause and question the wisdom of higher minimum wages. The economists explore how minimum wages affect the probability of employer-provided health coverage and find that a chunk of the increased earnings for workers who get higher wages will be offset by a reduction in employer-provided health coverage. READ MORE
Wells Fargo not alone: OCC finds sales abuses at other banks
Federal regulators have quietly ended a review of large and midsize banks’ sales practices that found several systemic issues — and hundreds of problems at individual institutions — and have no plans to make the results public. READ MORE
Equity Compensation and the Rise of Restricted Stock Units
In recent years, equity compensation programs have increasingly been using restricted stock units (RSUs). A manufacturing company recently made news when it granted RSUs worth millions of dollars to thousands of its employees in connection with its IPO. Statistics show the trend toward RSUs is widespread. In a recent survey of 325 companies, 72% reported using RSUs in their long-term incentive compensation programs compared to only 37% ten years earlier.[1] At the same time, the prevalence of restricted stock – a similar but less flexible form of equity – decreased significantly, falling to 13% of companies in 2017 from 41% ten years earlier.[2] READ MORE
Be careful what you wish for with minimum wage hikes
Eighteen states began 2018 with higher minimum wages. Thirty states (including the District of Columbia) now have minimum wages higher than the federal minimum, ranging as high as $11.50 in Washington State and $12.50 in the District of Columbia. READ MORE
Costco raising its minimum wage to at least $14 for all hourly workers
Costco is bumping up its minimum wage and giving raises to all of its hourly workers.
Costco says it will raise its minimum wage to at least $14 an hour for all 130,000 of its hourly workers. READ MORE
Google Is Pushed to Tie Executive Pay to Progress on Diversity
Employees of Google’s Alphabet Inc. are teaming with investors in a push to tie executive pay to progress on workplace diversity.
A staffer for the web-search giant will present a proposal at Wednesday’s annual shareholder meeting in Mountain View, California, according to Zevin Asset Management, which submitted the measure. They’re requesting Alphabet consider related metrics in incentive plans, with a focus on diversity and inclusion in the workforce. READ MORE
U.S. Labor Market Continues to Flourish, Though Wage Growth Remains Modest
Pay Equity Audits: Holding a Mirror to Current Compensation Practices
In addition to recent legislative changes in California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Oregon, pay equity in the workplace continues to garner widespread attention and has employers asking what they can do to better prepare. Developing a strategy to proactively engage in a pay equity audit is often the first and most effective step to ensure pay equity and minimize potential legal risk. READ MORE
Palo Alto Networks' New CEO Is Betting $20 Million of His Own Money on the Company
Nikesh Arora is placing a $20 million bet of his own capital on his performance at his new gig.
The incoming CEO of Palo Alto Networks, the world’s biggest pure-play cybersecurity company by market capitalization, tells Fortune that he is purchasing millions of dollars in Palo Alto Networks shares in order to show his commitment to the new job, which he is set to start on June 6th. “It’s sort of like put your money where your mouth is,” he says. READ MORE
Short-Term Pay Incentives Offered to More Workers at Private and Smaller Companies
New survey findings confirm what many U.S. workers have already learned: As annual salary raises have held steady at around 3 percent, annual bonuses tied to performance have become a bigger part of compensation. READ MORE
Want your CEO to really perform? Get their skin in the game…
Ever-increasing executive compensation over the past four decades - aided by consultants, compensation committees, the CEOs themselves and the backdrop of an extended bull market (1982-1999) - has meant widespread acceptance of the link between CEO pay and performance. READ MORE
The value of total compensation statements
Paychecks pay mortgages, buy food and make vacations possible.But what about the other parts of their compensation? For employees, these benefits are often overlooked and forgotten, and it’s up to employers to step in and remind employees of the full value of their compensation packages. READ MORE