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A series of major digital security breaches over the past year are serving as a wake-up call to Corporate America about the need to invest in cybersecurity.
Friday brought yet another reminder of the risk of cyberattacks, when Microsoft (MSFT) said the hackers behind the 2020 Solar Winds breach launched a new attack on more than 150 government agencies, think tanks and other organizations globally. READ MORE
Most of the women running the biggest U.S. companies saw their pay increase last year, even as the pandemic hammered the economy and many of their businesses.
Despite those gains, however, the median pay for female chief executives actually fell in 2020. Already a small group, they saw several high-profile women leave their ranks last year. That means changes in pay for only a few helped skew the overall figures, highlighting just how slow diversity has been to catch on in Corporate America's corner offices. READ MORE
Personal income tumbled in April as the prior month’s boost from stimulus checks waned and inflation ran hotter than expected.
Personal income declined 13.1% month over month, less than the 14.1% decline that economists surveyed by Refinitiv were anticipating. Incomes surged by a downwardly revised record 20.9% in March as the government sent out $1,400 checks to most Americans. READ MORE
CEOs of the country’s biggest companies in 2020 experienced a total average pay increase of 5 percent from the previous year, even as the coronavirus pandemic fueled immense losses for businesses across the globe, according to an analysis published by The Associated Press.
The AP reported Friday that based on analysis from corporate leadership data firm Equilar, the median total compensation for executives in 2020 was $12.7 million, marking a record high in the firm's nearly 10-year history of collecting data on annual CEO compensation. READ MORE
A record number of investors are rejecting executive compensation plans.
In non-binding votes of U.S.-listed companies this year, investors have rejected a record number of executive compensation plans, objecting to pay raises and the easing of performance targets coming out of the global pandemic. READ MORE
In tech, you frequently see folks in handcuffs.
Specifically, golden handcuffs, which signify the idea that employees must stay at companies for years in order to take home hefty stock payouts. These payouts are a primary topic of conversation in tech salary negotiations. READ MORE
In the fall of 2019, McDonald’s fired its CEO, Stephen Easterbrook (Easterbrook). The reason for the termination was that he violated company policy when he had a consensual sexual relationship with a McDonald’s employee.
Despite firing Easterbrook for violating company policy, McDonald’s fired him “without cause.” This meant he would receive a significant severance package, with a potential value of more than $41 million. READ MORE
Financial rewards are a major component of virtually every employer’s value proposition. People establish their standard of living based on the size and the stability of their income stream. The disruption the pandemic has caused has interrupted that stream for people who have lost their employment or have been furloughed. Governmental support has temporarily addressed this loss to varying degrees. But the destabilizing impact of the pandemic has put a spotlight on financial rewards and highlighted the importance of their continuity. READ MORE
Investors have rejected a record number of executive compensation plans in non-binding votes of U.S.-listed companies this year, objecting to pay rises and the easing of performance targets in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis by consulting firm ISS Corporate Solutions. READ MORE
What is a compensation plan?
A compensation plan, also referred to as a “total compensation plan,” includes more than just salary. It encompasses everything of value, monetary and otherwise, that an employer provides in exchange for the work you do. What can be included in the total compensation plan varies depending on the employer and position, but here are the most common pieces: READ MORE
This past year called for many of us to meet the greatest challenge of our lifetimes. Covid-19 changed how we live, when and how we see our friends and family, where we work and even how we shop.
At Kroger, it has changed how we approach nearly every aspect of our business. We had to reimagine selling groceries, because it wasn't just about the groceries anymore. It was about safeguarding our nearly half a million associates and 11 million daily customers; managing our ever-changing and often challenged supply chain; and accelerating our e-commerce services to provide fresh food through low-touch or no-touch shopping. READ MORE
Remote work is not going away any time soon — and many workers would be willing to take an average pay cut of 7% to work from home two or three days a week.
The in-depth look at remote work after the Covid-19 pandemic comes from the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, which found about 21% of total work hours post-pandemic will be from home — a huge increase from 5% before the pandemic. READ MORE
Rejections of executive pay packages in shareholder votes mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act more than a decade ago reached a record high this month as investors judge how CEOs handled the coronavirus pandemic.
Companies’ decisions to exclude COVID-19’s business impact when finalizing the size of bonuses and stock packages for their highest-paid executives are triggering more objections than ever, investor and pay consultants said. The widening divide between CEO and average worker earnings is also impacting how Wall Street views compensation. READ MORE
Wouldn’t it be great if you could say no to sky-high executive pay?
Turns out there’s an app for that. These days it’s as easy for retail shareholders to vote on CEO compensation as it is to order sushi on DoorDash. Just as brokerage apps have democratized investing, making stock and derivatives trading painlessly easy for everyday investors, so too has shareholder voting become almost effortless. READ MORE
For decades, worker compensation has been stagnant, while corporate profits make up an ever-increasing share of the economy.
The coronavirus pandemic has made the divide between employee and employer far more apparent. Covid disrupted the labor market in ways we have never seen: health worries, family obligations, hybrid-learning and child care shortages mean millions of workers remain on the sidelines. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a record 8.1 million job openings in March. READ MORE
As employee pay remains stagnant in the U.S. and inequality worsens, lawmakers, activists and workers have been advocating for a higher minimum wage. The push gained momentum in recent years through movements like the Fight for $15, which backed this week’s McDonald’s strike.
Congress last raised the federal minimum wage 14 years ago, the longest period on record without an increase. Some Democrats tried unsuccessfully to include a hike in Congress’ latest COVID-19 relief package, although President Joe Biden was able to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors through executive order.
But what if we looked at the inverse of this, as Dennett asks, and put a cap on how much corporate executives make? READ MORE
Institutional investors are busy protesting against executive pay. In the US, pay packages at public companies have received their lowest approval levels since votes became mandatory 10 years ago. In the UK, the average proportion of No votes has reached its highest level in at least seven years. Pay revolts are very much in keeping with the ESG zeitgeist. And disinterested observers can be pleased there is resistance to chief executives earning massive multiples of average wages at a time of global suffering. READ MORE
The winds of political change bring with them the potential for consequential revisions to the tax code. As anticipated, in late April President Joe Biden unveiled a number of significant proposed changes to the individual tax provisions. As with proposed revisions to the corporate code made several weeks earlier, these potential increases would fund an ambitious, multi-trillion dollar “Build Back Better” spending plan.
To be clear, the ultimate forms these proposals take and their political pathways remain uncertain. We do believe, however, it is likely some changes will be enacted. READ MORE
Democrats in Congress will probably fail to pass a federal $15-an-hour minimum wage. Amazingly, this might end up not mattering that much. The drive for $15 has succeeded simply by resetting Americans' idea of what a reasonable wage should be.
In an age of grassroots political campaigns, the Fight for $15 has been startlingly effective. It succeeded in getting a $15 minimum wage passed in Seattle, in California, and in a variety of other cities and states. Its message was simple, focused and — at least in the places where it has prevailed — reasonable. READ MORE
Bank of America’s minimum wage will be up to $25 an hour, the bank announced Tuesday, by 2025.
It also said that it would require all its vendors in the U.S. to pay $15 an hour or more to employees who work with the bank. According to the announcement, almost all its vendor firms and employees are paid at that rate, or higher, because of the bank's policy. READ MORE