Spring Ahead, Fall Back, Pay Now, Pay Later: Daylight Savings Time And The FLSA

This Sunday was Daylight Savings Time and we pushed the clocks ahead by one hour. This is, on a human level, a welcome event, as it signals winter’s end. Now, I can fling away any vestiges of Seasonal Affective Disorder and turn my attention to outdoor activities. Employers, however, must be vigilant on the particular day that this event takes place, as there is a FLSA implication to it. READ MORE

Biden Calls For Back Hazard Pay

President Biden recently put out a statement “calling on employers to meet their obligations to frontline essential workers and provide back hazard pay.” While the idea of “back” hazard pay is somewhat counterintuitive, as back pay would not encourage essential workers to stay at their jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this is not the first time that policymakers have floated the idea of mandating national hazard pay. Congressional Democrats included hazard pay in their Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act in May, while Senator Mitt Romney introduced his own proposal the same month. READ MORE

Starbucks shareholders vote against executive pay plan

Starbucks shareholders rejected the coffee chain’s executive compensation proposal, in a rare admonition of an S&P 500 company.

The resolution is not binding and likely won’t impact the board’s decision. However, the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said only 10 S&P 500 companies have had shareholders reject annual say-on-pay resolutions in the last year, based on data from ISS Corporate Solutions. READ MORE

Who are the highest-paid coaches competing for title?

As the weeks go on, the top teams in the tournament are hoping to have their hands on the title in the first week of April. The tournament will not feature some of the top teams with the highest-paid coaches, as Kentucky’s John Calipari and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski both missed out on the Big Dance.

The tournament will not be short of some of the greatest coaches the sports have seen. But even without Calipari and Krzyzewski, the bracket still has coaches making a very pretty penny. READ MORE

Considerations for Employers Contemplating Incentive Programs to Encourage Employees to Receive the COVID-19 Vaccine

The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published guidance in December 2020 on employer mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies. That guidance explained that subject to a few exceptions, employers can require that employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of returning to, or remaining in the workplace. However, even though mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies have been deemed permissible by the EEOC, many employers remain hesitant to mandate that their employees receive the vaccine. With that said, as the vaccine becomes more readily available, employers that are looking for an alternative solution to encourage their workforce to receive the vaccine, but without requiring it, may want to consider whether implementing an incentive program would be right for them. Indeed, a number of high-profile employers in multiple industries such as retail, transportation, and food services recently have announced their own incentive programs designed to encourage their employees to receive the vaccine, in lieu of implementing a mandatory vaccination policy. READ MORE

Competitive Market Surveys Rarely Produce Identical Pay

Compensation professionals love to cite “the open market,” while being less eager to admit that every market is different. Despite continual references to reliance on the free labor market, the competitive pay values established between and among employers almost never match. The reasons may seem obscure to outsiders, but they are clear to those who follow the arcane practices of the wage and salary management field. READ MORE

ARPA Expands Section 162(m) Deduction Limits on Executive Pay

A provision in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), signed into law March 11, will increase the number of employees subject to Internal Revenue Code Section 162(m)'s limit on corporation's ability to deduct executive compensation.

Section 162(m) generally prohibits tax deductions by publicly traded companies on the portion of covered employees' pay that exceeds $1 million per year. Currently, covered employees are the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and the three next-highest-compensated individuals. READ MORE

AI-Based Compensation Management and Bias: Can AI Close the Pay Gap?

A critical component of a successful employer-employee relationship is the employer’s fair and equitable treatment of employees, often embodied in the employer’s employee engagement, retention, and compensation practices. When it comes to compensation, U.S. employers must comply with federal and applicable state equal pay laws that prohibit discriminatory pay practices, and a myriad of state and local laws banning inquiries into, or the use of, prior salary history in setting pay. Yet, compensation bias and discrimination still exist and continue to be the subject of government investigations, audits, and litigation. READ MORE

The daring architecture of Elon Musk’s compensation plan has the Tesla CEO on track to make history

In 2018, the Tesla board fashioned a 10-year pay plan for founder and CEO Elon Musk that so far stands as the most successful long-term compensation blueprint in history. The structure is highly innovative in rewarding Musk for raising Tesla's market value, and it has delivered brilliantly. In the just over three years the program's been in place, Musk has multiplied the EV pioneer's value 12-fold to $647 billion at the market close on March 9. Musk hit many of the laddered targets that trigger the awards years earlier than the board could possibly have anticipated, leapfrogging one market-cap goal after another. His reward is what this writer anticipates to be the largest stock options award, secured in a brief period, in the annals of capital markets: $31.7 billion since May 2020, including over $10 billion alone in the first quarter of 2021. READ MORE

Pandemic affecting worker expectations about compensation, survey finds

Numerous surveys have asked employees about remote work, health and wellness, and other topics since the pandemic began a year ago. Despite the rapid changes and workplace disruption, however, nearly every employee continues to work for one simple reason – compensation. Elements Global Services recently surveyed more than 2,200 employees from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom about how the pandemic has affected compensation. As many as 65 percent of Americans surveyed said their income either stayed the same or fell in 2020. READ MORE

Kyrsten Sinema channels John McCain, gives ‘thumbs-down’ vote on $15 minimum wage plan

When it came time to vote Friday on a $15 minimum wage amendment to the massive coronavirus stimulus bill, maverick Democrat U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema chose to do it in emphatic Arizona style – and the move infuriated her critics on the left.

In video footage that has since gone viral, Sinema is seen offering a "thumbs-down" vote on the Senate floor. She was one of seven Democrats and one left-leaning independent who opposed the amendment, which failed on a 58-42 count. READ MORE

Chipotle will link executive compensation to environmental and diversity goals

Chipotle Mexican Grill said Thursday that executive compensation will now be linked to hitting targets tied to the company’s environmental and diversity goals.

The burrito chain is following in the footsteps of Starbucks and McDonald’s, both of which recently announced that performance for racial and gender diversity goals will impact executive compensation plans. Individual investors and large asset managers like BlackRock are increasingly picking stocks with strong environmental, social and corporate governance in mind, pushing companies to make changes to become a more attractive investment. READ MORE

A better way to raise the minimum wage

Democrats are having a big fight among themselves about how to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 per hour since 2009. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and some other liberals want it raised to $15 per hour, but conservative Democrats like Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.V.) say that’s too high for rural areas and smaller cities. They might raise it to $11, which the Sanders camp considers dismissively low. READ MORE