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The 2021 corporate shareholder proxy-voting season, in which shareholders vote on proxy reports looking back at 2020, is providing a window into executive pay in the U.S. and how that pay is viewed by shareholders and other stakeholders—which ultimately reflects on a company's brand and reputation.
So far, the data suggest that companies need to be as clear and explicit as possible when communicating about executive compensation. READ MORE
At the start of the pandemic, some CEOs announced, to much fanfare, that they’d give up their salaries in order to protect their companies from layoffs or closures. But those gestures did little to curb the trend of soaring CEO earnings (because salary is often just one component of CEO compensation). In 2020, what CEOs took home rose nearly 16%, according to preliminary data, while the average worker’s compensation rose just 1.8%. READ MORE
The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado decided that a sufficiently high day rate, although not a “salary” per se, was sufficient to satisfy the “salary basis” requirement for the FLSA’s white collar exemptions. Scott v. Antero Resources Corp., Case 1:17-cv-00693-WJM-SKC. The decision addressed a pay practice common in certain industries but questionable as applied to the white-collar exemptions.
Plaintiffs worked for Antero as drilling consultants and were classified as independent contractors. Plaintiffs alleged that they were improperly classified as independent contractors and were thus employees who were owed overtime compensation. READ MORE
Political Calculations' initial estimate of median household income in April 2021 is $67,788, an increase of $1,542 (or 2.3%) from the initial estimate of $66,248 for March 2021.
The latest update to the chart tracking Median Household Income in the 21st Century shows the nominal (red) and inflation-adjusted (blue) trends for median household income in the United States from January 2000 through April 2021. The inflation-adjusted figures are presented in terms of constant April 2021 U.S. dollars. READ MORE
For companies and organizations with sales teams, finding the right commission structure can be a challenging task for leadership. Walking the line between fair compensation that drives employee happiness, growing sales numbers and a healthy bottom line for the budget takes strategic thought and consideration. Most importantly, the commission structure should align with company goals as well. READ MORE
Here are the top-paid CEOs by state for 2020, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm.
The survey considered only publicly traded companies with more than $1 billion in revenue that filed their proxy statements with federal regulators between Jan. 1 and April 30. Not every state has such a company headquartered there. The survey includes only CEOs who have been in place for at least two years, but it does not limit the survey to companies in the S&P 500, as the AP’s general compensation study does. READ MORE
With COVID-19 vaccine rollout well underway in the United States — a reported 50% of Americans are fully vaccinated — employers are increasingly welcoming employees back to the office. However, vaccine hesitancy is still prevalent in the country, which has caused some organizations to flirt with the idea of incentivizing those workers to receive their shots.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission weighed in on the matter on Friday in its updated guidance, which stated that employers can offer bonuses and other incentives to encourage employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine. This guidance brings clarity to what was considered a legal gray area during the pandemic. READ MORE
It’s no secret that most companies, especially those that are public, are increasing their efforts to achieve workplace equity. Whether it’s through tying diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to executive compensation, improving employee well-being or simply ensuring that all employees are compensated fairly across race, gender and ethnicity — a positive shift is no doubt underway.
WorldatWork’s Workplace Equity Virtual Forum May 19-20 explored all of these areas, including how HR and total rewards pros should approach the board and investors about the topic of pay equity. READ MORE
Chipotle recently became the latest company to voluntarily raise worker pay, announcing that many of its 76,000 hourly employees would get a bump to $15 an hour. This occurred shortly after the company disclosed that CEO Brian Niccol had made nearly 3,000 times the median employee salary in 2020, up from 1,136 times in 2019 and among the top ten highest pay ratios among companies in the Russell 3000 stock index, according to research firm Equilar.
Coincidence? Or is the pay bump for the rank and file a sign that the most highly compensated senior executives are starting to feel a tinge of shame? READ MORE
The WSJ has published its annual ranking of CEO pay and compensation packages for S&P 500 companies, and Apple’s Tim Cook only takes 171st place despite AAPL sitting at the top of the index by company worth.
Standard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) ranks US companies by market capitalization, putting AAPL in first place with its value of more than 2 trillion dollars …
Indeed, AAPL makes up almost 6% of the total value of the top 500 US companies, but this isn’t reflected in CEO Tim Cook’s salary and performance-related pay. READ MORE
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
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