As more middle-market business owners begin bumping compensation to offer their employees a true living wage, they are creating a more empowered workforce with more disposable income. While an unintended consequence might be inflation, in general these wage increases are further strengthening our economy and, by extension, our middle market. READ MORE
2017 was a great year for CEOs. Not so much for the average worker.
The American economy is booming — especially if you’re a CEO.
Earnings for the top executives at America’s largest companies skyrocketed in 2017, while wages for the average worker hardly budged. READ MORE
CEO pay jumps to $19 million annually, as fears mount over the wealthy pocketing gains
Top executives of America’s biggest companies saw their average annual pay surge to $18.9 million in 2017, according to a report released Thursday, fueling concerns about the gulf between the nation’s richest and everyone else. READ MORE
5 Decades Of Middle-Class Wages: July 2018 Update
We've updated this series to include Friday's release of the Consumer Price Index as the deflator and the July monthly employment update. The latest hypothetical real (inflation-adjusted) annual earnings are at $38,279, down 12.5% from 45-plus years ago. READ MORE
How the Push for Greater Compensation Reporting Requirements Could Put Global Companies at Risk
The recent string of headlines about pay gaps has many companies on edge as they adapt to a world of increased compensation reporting requirements. READ MORE
These Are the 25 Highest-Paying Jobs in the U.S. Right Now
For the fourth consecutive year, the technology sector boasted the highest-paying jobs in the U.S., according to an annual report from Glassdoor.
Thirteen of the 25 highest-paying jobs this year were in tech, up from 11 in 2017, according to the report, which was released on Wednesday. Within the industry, enterprise architects, software development managers, software engineering managers and software architects received the highest pay, with the lowest average base salary well over $100,000. READ MORE
Where in the U.S. does your pay go furthest? Try Duluth
The highest paychecks in the U.S. are in San Jose, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, according to a new analysis from job search site Indeed. But what if you don't want to live there, or in nearby San Francisco, where $117,000 a year is considered a low income? READ MORE
If unemployment is so low, why aren’t wages higher?
The Great Recession did a number on many Americans. Apparently, we’re so thankful just to have jobs that some of us didn’t blink an eye when President Trump tweeted that “this is the greatest economy in the HISTORY of America.” READ MORE
In U.S., wage growth is being wiped out entirely by inflation
Rising prices have erased U.S. workers’ meager wage gains, the latest sign strong economic growth has not translated into greater prosperity for the middle and working classes.
Cost of living was up 2.9 percent from July 2017 to July 2018, the Labor Department reported Friday, an inflation rate that outstripped a 2.7 percent increase in wages over the same period. The average U.S. “real wage,” a federal measure of pay that takes inflation into account, fell to $10.76 an hour last month, 2 cents down from where it was a year ago. READ MORE
Productivity and wages: What’s the connection?
Ex-Nike Employees Sue Company, Alleging Unequal Compensation
Four women who used to work for Nike filed a federal lawsuit alleging the company violated state and U.S. equal-pay laws and fostered a work environment that allowed sexual harassment. READ MORE
When Is Compensation Unreasonable?
Just what is reasonable compensation in the Medicare world is not a clearly defined, black and white concept. Instead, it is somewhat in the eye of the beholder, with the parties to each situation where that is an issue seeking to reach out for third party support for their conclusions. But sometimes when the government gets a chance to look at the conclusions, it is a “bridge too far.” READ MORE
For most U.S. workers, real wages have barely budged in decades
On the face of it, these should be heady times for American workers. U.S. unemployment is as low as it’s been in nearly two decades (3.9% as of July) and the nation’s private-sector employers have been adding jobs for 101 straight months – 19.5 million since the Great Recession-related cuts finally abated in early 2010, and 1.5 million just since the beginning of the year. READ MORE
SHOWTIME Series Kills Off Actress Who Complained About Pay Parity
Ruth Wilson’s character, Alison, was killed off in a major surprise last night on Showtime’s “The Affair.” The show was recently renewed for a fifth and final season next year.
Alison was part of the show’s main quadrangle with Dominic West, Joshua Jackson, and Maura Tierney. Wilson won a Golden Globe award for the role. READ MORE
This theory could help explain why wages aren’t rising faster
Wage growth remains stubbornly low — and one trend across many U.S. companies could be contributing to the problem: Cutting middle managers. READ MORE
Manipulation or compensation? What to make of stock buybacks
Investors have long debated whether corporations should use their profits to buy back stock or pay dividends. Luckily, new research offers some hard data. READ MORE
How To Fix Stagnant Wages: Dump The World's Dumbest Idea
The fact is that in the 1980s and beyond, public companies began embracing a very different idea as to the purpose of a firm: the idea that the sole purpose of a corporation is to maximize shareholder value. Then, as executives were compensated massively with stock options to sharpen their focus on increasing shareholder value at the expense of everything else, and activist hedge funds began reinforcing the focus with corporate raids on firms that didn’t buy into the doctrine, public companies began to focus totally on maximizing shareholder as reflected in current the stock price. READ MORE
Solving The 'Wage Puzzle': Why Aren't Paychecks Growing?
A basic tenet of economics is that when demand for something goes up, so does its cost. So, many economists wonder why today's high demand for workers hasn't translated into bigger increases in pay. READ MORE
Tax Breaks for Stock Pay Curbed, Handing Tech `Huge' Liabilities
Silicon Valley’s favorite compensation strategy -- paying top employees in stock rather than cash -- just got more expensive.
A recent U.S. federal court ruling means companies such as Facebook Inc.and Alphabet Inc.’s Google won’t be able to deduct the full cost of the stock payments they make to employees when calculating their corporate tax bills, which they’ve done for years. READ MORE
Conversion of the Notice of Temporary Compensation Payable
The notice of temporary compensation payable (NTCP) and its use has always been the topic of much debate since its inception. While the document was originally created to enable an employer to contest truly questionable claims, it has become almost the only document ever issued at the beginning of a case, thereby allowing the employer to retain control of the claim for 90 days, even in cases where liability is not in question in any way. Until the legislature addresses what many consider to be blatant abuse of the system and the NTCP, it is important to consider under what circumstances an NTCP converts into a permanent claim. While beyond the scope of this article, the workers’ compensation automation and integration system (WCAIS) has dramatically added much drama to the NTCP conversion scenario since it is often difficult for adjusters to issue the appropriate documents, and the mail is no longer a component in the equation. READ MORE