Pay Governance Survey Indicates UK and EU Companies Overwhelmingly Lead US Companies in ESG Inclusion in Incentive Compensation Plans

According to a recent comprehensive survey by Pay Governance, a major board-level executive compensation advisory firm, nearly all U.K. and EU companies surveyed included environmental, social and corporate governance metrics in their incentive compensation plans, compared to less than one-fourth of U.S. companies surveyed. In addition, U.K. and EU companies had a much higher rate of ESG inclusion in long-term incentive plans.

Pay Governance’s study was developed to determine if companies are responding to the recent attention to ESG and, if so, whether it is resulting in a change in the design of incentive compensation plans. READ MORE

SEC chairman calls for new restrictions on executive stock-trading plans

The Securities and Exchange Commission is drafting a proposal that would restrict plans that corporate insiders use to avoid insider-trading claims when buying or selling their own company’s stock.

Speaking Monday at The Wall Street Journal’s CFO Network event, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said he is seeking to revise rules that govern the arrangements, known as 10b5-1 plans. Insiders set up plans ahead of time and use them to schedule future trades. The arrangement gives executives a defense against insider-trading claims that would stem from having undisclosed material nonpublic information at the time of a trade. READ MORE

Former McDonald's CEO warns $15 minimum wage directly contributing to fast-food industry's automation push

Former McDonald's CEO Ed Rensi is warning that the fight for a $15 minimum wage is directly contributing to the restaurant industry's push toward automation. 

Last month, McDonald's announced plans to raise the starting hourly wage range to $11-$17 per hour for crew and $15-$20 per hour for shift managers. The fast-food chain noted in its wage hike announcement that it planned to hire 10,000 new employees over the next three months. READ MORE

Companies you'd never expect are offering signing bonuses to new employees

America's stores are having trouble bringing on staff to meet growing demand from customers as the US economy regains steam. So they're turning to an incentive less commonly deployed in the retail industry: sign-on bonuses for new hires.

Amazon (AMZN), Ollie's Bargain Outlet (OLLI), Tops Markets supermarket chain, Sheetz convenience stores and many smaller stores are offering such one-time payments to sweeten job offers to new workers. Sign-on bonuses can be more attractive for some employers than raising wages because bonuses are not permanent and ultimately cheaper, said Andrew Challenger, vice president at executive outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. READ MORE

The Other Side of the May Jobs Report: Higher Wages

Friday’s employment report for May confirmed that the economy is continuing its recovery from the shock of the pandemic. Although the headline figure of five hundred and fifty-nine thousand jobs gained fell a bit short of Wall Street projections, it was more than double the Labor Department’s previous report for job growth in April—two hundred and sixty-six thousand—a number so low that it shocked many economists when it was announced, this time last month. The official unemployment rate fell three-tenths of a point in May, to 5.8 per cent. That’s the lowest level since March, 2020, when the coronavirus shutdowns were just beginning. READ MORE

Biden’s proposed 39.6% top tax rate would apply at these income levels

President Joe Biden wants to raise the top income tax rate for wealthy households to 39.6%, from the current 37%, to help finance his legislative agenda.

That top rate would apply to single individuals with taxable income of more than $452,700 and married couples filing a joint tax return with income over $509,300, according to a budget proposal issued Friday by the Treasury Department. READ MORE

3 Traits of Top-Performing Commission Sales Professionals

I have a tremendous amount of respect for 100% commission industry sales professionals. With no guarantee of a salary or benefits, you’re faced with the cold reality that if you do not sell you do not get paid. As a result, historically there is a high failure rate amongst industry sales professionals, as it takes time to build up a business.

However, the beauty for those who are successful is that there’s no ceiling to an individual’s income—the more you sell, the more you make. During my 20-plus years in this industry, both on the distributor and supplier side, I have worked with thousands of straight commission sales professionals. I have found that the few who are writing millions of dollars in revenue a year exemplify traits that take their game to a different level. These professionals do the following: READ MORE

Wage Growth Is Holding Up in Aftermath of the Economic Crash

When millions of workers were getting layoff notices last spring, Sharon McCown got something different: a raise.

Target, where Ms. McCown was earning $13 an hour stocking shelves and helping customers, gave frontline workers an extra $2 an hour in hazard pay in the early months of the pandemic. The company later raised starting pay permanently to $15 an hour, and paid out a series of bonuses to hourly employees. READ MORE

Executive Pay Growth During the Pandemic Faces Scrutiny

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

Worker pay went up just 1.8% in 2020. CEO pay increased nearly 16%

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

High Daily Pay Rates Can Satisfy FLSA’s Salary Exemption

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

Median Household Income In April 2021

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

Considering A Commission Structure? 14 Important Elements To Factor In

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

The highest-paid CEOs by state

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

EEOC: Employers Can Offer Vaccine Incentives to Employees

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

Painting a Pay Equity Picture for the Board and Shareholders

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

Is a CEO Worth 1,000 Times the Median Worker?

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

Tim Cook only ranks 171/500 in CEO pay and compensation table

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