Biden, Democrats hit gas on push for $15 minimum wage

The Democratic push to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour has emerged as an early flashpoint in the fight for a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, testing President Joe Biden's ability to bridge Washington's partisan divides as he pursues his first major legislative victory.

Biden called for a $15 hourly minimum wage during his campaign and has followed through by hitching it to a measure that, among other things, calls for $1,400 stimulus checks and $130 billion to help schools reopen. Biden argues that anyone who holds a full-time job shouldn't live in poverty, echoing progressives in the Democratic Party who are fully on board with the effort. READ MORE

Survey: Vaccine policies divide workers, though most welcome incentives

The survey results indicate the challenges HR departments face in counseling executives on planning for workforce vaccination campaigns, but they may also show that a strategy centered around providing incentives for vaccination could connect with employees more broadly than a vaccination mandate. READ MORE

Lowe's announces $80M in worker bonuses, to hire more than 50,000 workers

Lowe's Companies Inc. on Thursday announced plans to invest another $80 million in its frontline workforce through discretionary bonuses in an effort to recognize "their continued dedication" during the pandemic. READ MORE

America's billionaires have grown $1.1 trillion richer during the pandemic

Billionaires are minting money during the pandemic, even as millions of Americans join the ranks of the poor.

US billionaires have collectively become $1.1 trillion -- nearly 40% -- richer since mid-March, according to a report published Tuesday by progressive groups Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness. READ MORE

Study Highlights Differences in Federal and Private STEM Employee Compensation

In a detailed report that compares the compensation and benefits for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) employees in the both the Federal and private sectors, it was found Federal employees have more advanced degrees, but make less money annually. READ MORE

Olive Garden parent company to offer paid time off for employees to get COVID-19 vaccine

Some restaurant workers will receive sick pay to prevent themselves from getting sick.

Darden Restaurants, the parent company of brands including Olive Garden, announced on Tuesday that it will incentivizing employees to get their COVID-19 vaccines by offering paid time off — up to four hours — so workers "do not have to choose between earning income and getting vaccinated," Darden CEO Gene Lee said in a letter shared with Fox News. READ MORE

Dems unveil $15 minimum wage bill, say they may use reconciliation to pass legislation

A group of Democratic lawmakers reintroduced legislation on Tuesday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2025 — and indicated they may use a powerful procedural tool to pass the bill using their slimmest-possible Senate majority.

“Let’s be clear: The $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage is a starvation wage,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the incoming chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said during a call with reporters. "No person in America can make it on $8, $10 or $12 an hour." READ MORE

Dr. Fauci is the highest paid employee in the federal government

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top disease expert in the U.S., is the highest-paid federal government employee in the U.S.—surpassing even the president—according to a Freedom of Information Act request by OpenTheBooks.com.

Fauci pulled in $417,608.00 in 2019—his largest haul ever—and in the previous two years earned $384,625.00. Forbes reported that from 2010 to 2019, Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, earned $3.6 million. READ MORE

Goldman CEO David Solomon takes $10M pay cut for Malaysian investment scandal

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. slashed Chief Executive David Solomon’s 2020 pay by 36%, punishment for the bank’s admission last year that it broke U.S. laws in its dealings with an investment fund at the heart of a global corruption ring.

Mr. Solomon received a $17.5 million compensation package for 2020, down from the $27.5 million he got for 2019, according to a securities filing on Tuesday. READ MORE

Biden campaigned on making gig workers employees. Now he has to convince Democrats.

The future of gig workers — Uber drivers, DoorDash couriers and other app workers — is likely to emerge as the most explosive labor issue the incoming Biden administration will face, threatening to aggravate the tensions between the centrist and more corporate-friendly wing of the Democratic Party and fired-up liberals on the left.

Although President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign platform called for gig workers to be classified as employees, narrow Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate and those intraparty philosophical rifts could block Democrats from reaching agreement on gig-worker rights. READ MORE

There's no cap on income affecting happiness

It turns out mo’ money may actually mean mo’ smiles.

While traditional wisdom tells us that money can’t buy happiness, a new study suggests that the opposite may in fact be true. The research also indicates that previous studies, which indicated some sort of limit to the amount of money that impacts happiness, may have been wrong. READ MORE

IRS postpones date for companies to repay deferred payroll taxes

President Trump's executive action in August deferred, rather than reduced, tax obligations for employees earning up to $4,000 every two weeks.

Many private-sector companies decided not to postpone tax payments because of the administrative complexity and potential confusion among employees about a sudden increase in 2021 withholding to pay the deferred tax. READ MORE

The History of the Gender Wage Gap in America

The wage gap, also known as the “gender wage gap” or “gender pay gap,” refers to the disparity between what men and women earn for doing the same work. It is sometimes used to describe pay disparities between white workers and workers of color, as well as between workers in the United States and other countries. This article focuses on the wage gap as it relates to gender and race. READ MORE

Maximizing The After-Tax Value Of Incentive Stock Options

Incentive stock options (ISOs) are often part of executive and key employee compensation packages. But these incentives have to be handled carefully to get the most out of them.

“Rules for reporting ISO transactions, and for all types of stock options, are fairly complicated,” said Robbin E. Caruso, a CPA, partner and co-leader of the national tax controversy department at Prager Metis in Cranbury, N.J.

ISOs are issued at a “strike” price per share set by the company; employees typically must complete a vesting period with the company before they can buy shares in an ISO. Employees can then sell the shares later for the their current price, which could be much higher than the strike price. READ MORE

Upcoming Incentive Stock Options and Employee Stock Purchase Plan Reporting and Disclosure Requirements

At the beginning of each year, Section 6039 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code requires companies to comply with Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reporting and disclosure requirements relating to the exercise of incentive stock options (ISOs) and the transfer of stock purchased at a discount under a tax-qualified employee stock purchase plan (ESPP). READ MORE

Wall Street Gets Frugal With Employees After Pandemic Windfall

Deluged by client orders and often working from home, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s workforce generated 15% more revenue per employee during the tumult of 2020. But as the year wound down, the firm had spent an average of just 2% more on each person.

Inside JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s investment bank, revenue per employee surged 22%. The figure for pay: up 1%. READ MORE

Final Tax-Exempt Organization Executive Compensation Regulations—What Changed?

On Jan. 11, 2021, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations pertaining to the implementation of tax code Section 4960, which imposes an excise tax of 21% on salaries exceeding $1 million paid to covered employees of nonprofit organization. READ MORE

Reporting Deferred Compensation on Form 990

Tax-exempt organizations often provide deferred compensation to their officers, key employees, and most highly compensated employees. Like current compensation payable to such employees, deferred compensation must be reported annually on Form 990, Schedule J. For the most part, Schedule J is straightforward. However, it is not always obvious how to apply the rules for reporting deferred compensation. This blog post describes the rules and gives an illustrative example. READ MORE

Directors’ 2020 Compensation Higher Than Expected

Total expected compensation for outside corporate directors continued to rise in 2020, while boards navigated a near-term pandemic response and planned for the longer-term realities.

Willis Towers Watson’s Global Executive Compensation Analysis Team completed its annual year-over-year comparison of S&P 500 director pay program results, contrasting 2020 proxy data against that of 2019. The analysis of nonemployee director compensation looks at an expected level of pay for a median outside director as of fiscal year-end 2019 and 2018, which includes forward-looking pay level adjustments disclosed for 2020 and 2019 but does not include any potential disclosed impact due to COVID-19. READ MORE

The Exec Comp Landscape Is Changing

The list is growing.  

Uber. Wells Fargo. Starbucks. PepsiCo.

These are a handful of the high-profile companies whose CEOs have publicly announced their intention to tie executive compensation to the organization’s advancement toward diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) goals.  READ MORE