Which programming languages pay the most? That’s a key question for many developers. Stack Overflow’s latest developer survey suggests that, in the United States, developers who predominantly use Scala, Go, and Objective-C tend to have the biggest paychecks; Kotlin, Perl, and Ruby developers are also handsomely compensated. READ MORE
Low-wage essential workers get less protection against coronavirus – and less information about how it spreads
Low-wage essential workers are more likely to face dangerous working conditions and food insecurity than high-wage workers, even more so during the COVID-19 pandemic. READ MORE
Executive Compensation: Moving Forward in a COVID-19 World
Employers reacted in a variety of ways to cope with the unprecedented financial impact of COVID-19. Many of the initial executive compensation responses were designed as cost-cutting measures that would ease cash flow burdens and provide flexibility in uncertain times. Now, as the “new normal” American workplace begins to take shape, employers must begin to shift their focus to whether their current executive compensation practices are designed with sufficient incentives to retain key employees and to spur recovery and sustained growth. This post reviews the range of cost-cutting measures companies have enacted over the past few months, and provides guidance on executive compensation issues employers should consider as they move forward in a COVID-19 world. READ MORE
Remote-first work will mean ‘globally fair compensation’
Most tech companies base compensation on an employee’s local cost of living, in addition to their skills and responsibilities. The pandemic-era push to remote work seems to be reinforcing that — if you only skim the headlines. For example, Facebook said last week that it would be readjusting salaries for employees who have relocated away from the Bay Area. READ MORE
Facebook’s “Localized Compensation” Plan Might Be a Difficult Sell for Employees
If you WFH and that home is in a different city or state, should your salary reflect your locality? READ MORE
Power 5 conferences ask Congress for college athlete compensation law
The Power 5 conference commissioners are asking Congress to move forward with federal legislation regarding compensation for college athletes. READ MORE
Researchers say this is the ideal salary for happiness and well-being
Money does buy happiness — to a certain point, according to research from Purdue University. So what’s the magic number? To feel satisfied with life, the researchers found that an individual salary of $95,000 is ideal, while $60,000 to $75,000 satisfies emotional well-being. READ MORE
How To Fix “Busted” Incentive Plans
CEOs and senior leadership teams have been doing the heavy lifting of keeping employees safe and healthy, safeguarding liquidity and building future business plans. All the while, 52% of companies have seen revenues erode 15% to 50% or more, according to a recent Korn Ferry Pulse survey. One of the downstream casualties of the current crisis is corporate short-term incentive plans that have moved from “achievable” to “highly unlikely” payouts due to the crisis. READ MORE
Elon Musk reaches first Tesla compensation award worth nearly $800 million
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has unlocked the first of 12 possible stock option awards from the massive compensation plan he signed in 2018, and it’s worth nearly $800 million. The company disclosed on Thursday that Musk now has the option to buy 1.69 million of its shares because Tesla eclipsed $20 billion in total revenue over the last four quarters and a market capitalization of more than $100 billion — the first in a series of tandem milestones Tesla must hit for Musk to realize the full value of the plan. READ MORE
It would take a typical worker 169 years to amass a CEO's salary
A typical CEO at one of the biggest U.S. companies took home $12.3 million last year, according to the Associated Press's annual survey of executive compensation. The gap between the boss and their workforce widened further. READ MORE
U.S. firms shield CEO pay as pandemic hits workers, investors
CEO pay tops $12.3M. Can it keep rising?
The typical pay package for CEOs at the biggest U.S. companies topped $12.3 million last year, and the gap between the boss and their workforces widened further, according to AP's annual survey of executive compensation. READ MORE
Could pandemic put a damper on rising CEO compensation?
The typical pay package for CEOs at the biggest U.S. companies topped $12.3 million last year, and the gap between the boss and their workforces widened further, according to AP’s annual survey of executive compensation. READ MORE
Globally (Not So) Mobile Employees: Taxation Of Equity Awards In A COVID-19 World
The rules relating to the US taxation of equity awards in an international context are often complex and sometimes uncertain. This On the Subject explores how COVID-19-related travel restrictions affect the US taxation of certain equity awards for employees transferred to and from US-based employers. READ MORE
Only 10% of employers expect Covid-19 layoffs to be permanent
Two-thirds of employers took some action in March and April that negatively impacted employee pay, including layoffs and furloughs, according to data released today by Salary.com. READ MORE
How COVID-19 and work from home is transforming rewards packages
Flexible work arrangements may have been around for decades, and COVID-19 has flipped the script by hyper-accelerating WFH through a need for tens of millions of workers to shelter in place. Despite the lack of HR policies and protocols for an almost instant shift to 100% remote working, American creativity configured a solution and reimagined our approach to total rewards. READ MORE
Bankruptcy pay evasion
In the early 2000s, large troubled firms developed a practice of paying retention bonuses to senior managers immediately after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Congress banned this practice in 2005 with the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), citing the need to protect public confidence in the bankruptcy courts and fight “glaring abuses of the bankruptcy system by the executives of giant companies.” READ MORE
ISS Urges Shareholders To Just Say No To Big Media And Big Tech Executive Pay Policies
There's a Schizophrenic Quality to Minimum Wage Support
One of these days, the economy will get back up on its feet. But will the recovery resemble a V, with a sharp upward thrust, or a flat U shape, keeping us in the doldrums interminably? READ MORE
Department of Labor Permits Payment of Incentive Compensation by Employers Using Fluctuating Workweek
On May 20, 2020, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) released a Final Rule authorizing employers that use the “fluctuating workweek” method for calculating employees’ regular rates of pay to award employees additional incentive-based compensation above their fixed weekly salaries – such as bonuses, premium payments, commissions, or hazard pay – without running afoul of the DOL’s fluctuating workweek rules. The new rule is designed to give employers who rely on the fluctuating workweek the ability to use incentive pay to address staffing issues that may arise as businesses attempt to reopen in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. READ MORE