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For 110 years, four generations of Mills family members earned their money by expanding their great-grandfather’s Chicago apron business into a medical supplier that ranked among the nation’s largest private companies.
But soon after Democrats turned their attention toward raising taxes for the wealthy this year, the family signed a deal to cash out billions. READ MORE
Activision Blizzard Inc. and its shareholders have been at odds about the chief executive’s compensation for years, but as CEO Bobby Kotick’s 2020 pay package hit more than $150 million while the videogame publisher company laid off employees, the battle turned into an all-out war.
At its annual general meeting last week, the “Call of Duty” publisher hit the pause button on an investor vote on its executive compensation, delaying it for a week. Investment firm CtW Investment Group, which had urged shareholders to vote against the “say on pay” proposal, called the company’s move a “desperate attempt to avoid a loss.” READ MORE
The Supreme Court handed a unanimous victory Monday to Division I college athletes in their fight against the National Collegiate Athletic Association over caps it sought to impose on compensation related to education.
The court voted 9-0 to affirm lower court rulings that found that antitrust law prevented the NCAA from restricting payments to athletes for items such as musical instruments or as compensation for internships. The justices rejected the NCAA’s argument that its players’ amateur status would be impossible to maintain if they could receive pay, even for education-related expenses. READ MORE
Employers who sponsor employee benefits plans are used to providing ongoing communication to plan participants. The communications range from legally required disclosures (e.g., summary plan descriptions) to legally required notices (e.g., COBRA notices) to information voluntarily provided to participants (e.g., the importance of saving for retirement). However, regular internal communication between employer management and employees responsible for benefit plan administration and compliance ("benefits staff") is also vital to the effective operation of an employee benefits program. A lack of effective communication between an employer's management and benefits staff can result in costly, yet avoidable, compliance violations, employee relations issues, and other problems.
Here are four examples of the importance of effective internal communication between employer management and benefits staff. READ MORE
Katie Toghramadjian thought she had found a job that would allow her to balance her burgeoning career as a civil engineer with the demands—and joys—of parenting. She had two boys under the age of four when she went to work at BRW, a Minneapolis-based company that offered roadway design services. She had negotiated to work remotely, and her schedule was her own. Toghramadjian would check in with her project manager each afternoon to see what assignments she’d have for the day. Then, after the kids went to bed, she would work from 8 p.m. until about 2 a.m., making sure her assignments were completed for the team to pick up in the morning. READ MORE
Equity compensation for employees is booming. As stock markets surge, companies find rejuvenated value in granting equity to employees, not just to executives. Those employees, in turn, are getting ever more comfortable with stock investing via online trading apps.
All of this means that the need for financial-planning advice is also booming, especially for employees who have grants of restricted stock or restricted stock units (RSUs). They have become the most common type of equity award now, surpassing stock options. READ MORE
Right now, a lot of business owners are struggling to find and keep good talent, and if you are in the market for a new salesperson, you may be looking for a way to stand out from the competition. One way to do so is to rethink your sales compensation plan to make your business more appealing to prospective job seekers. READ MORE
Employees at some of the biggest and most well-known companies in the United States say they would choose working from home over a hefty pay raise—the latest evidence of the popularity of work-from-home benefits that has big implications for HR and company leaders.
According to a survey of 3,000 workers from companies including Google, Amazon and Microsoft by professional network Blind, 64% said they would choose a permanent work-from-home option over a $30,000 pay raise. READ MORE
President Joe Biden has consistently pledged not to raise taxes on households making less than $400,000 a year.
Whether his tax proposal keeps or breaks that promise depends on one’s frame of reference.
Primarily, it’s a question of how an observer considers a taxpayer earning less than $400,000 who has a one-time income windfall, according to tax experts. READ MORE
Decisions about compensation are tricky, with potential indelible impact on a company. A strategically designed compensation program helps a business elicit the desired behaviors, drive the right sales outcomes, do consistent and predictable budgeting and planning, enhance its overall performance, remain competitive in the market, and win the talent game. But when managed poorly, the effects can be devastating.
As 90% of top-performing companies utilize incentive programs to reward their sales associates and properly structured bonus schemes can increase employee performance by 44%, it is critical for boards and management teams to get compensation right. READ MORE
All attorneys start their careers as associates, and many will go on to become of counsel, non-equity partners, or equity partners.
The main difference between an equity partner and non-equity or income partner is that the equity partners assumes a leadership role that goes beyond law. Let’s look at titles: READ MORE
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are often thought to be an issue that can be solved by intuition by some segment of the HR team. However, in reality, it needs to come from a data-driven approach that encompasses the entire workforce.
The primary aspect that companies usually look to, in terms of treating employees fairly, is remuneration. However, having the conversation and agreeing on the need for equality doesn’t mean it will be achieved on an organizational scale. READ MORE
Six of the 10 largest executive pay packages of all time were awarded last year. This and other findings come from a new survey of the 200 highest paid C.E.O.s at public companies conducted for The Times by Equilar, a consulting firm. “Even in a gilded age for executive pay, 2020 was a blowout year,” writes The Times’s Peter Eavis.
The spike is due in large part to linking C.E.O.s’ pay to stock prices. This “pay-for-performance” structure is intended to align managers’ incentives with those of the company’s owners, the shareholders. But it also raises questions about how much credit executives deserve for rising stock prices, and whether the performance conditions attached to stock awards are suitably tough. C.E.O. pay jumped 14.1 percent last year, while the median worker got a 1.9 percent raise. READ MORE
In the U.S., we’re seeing an increasing number of calls to increase the national minimum wage to $15/hour. Many states and municipalities have already passed minimum wage hikes in the last several years, and a variety of proposals are under consideration at the federal level.
However, economists remain uncertain as to the long-term impact of these policies on the welfare of American workers. Some studies suggest that raising minimum wage has a small negative effect on employment rates, while others find no such adverse effect on employment. READ MORE
Minimum wage laws can affect businesses of all sizes, whether operating nationwide, in multiple jurisdictions, or only in one state, county, or city. To help manage this challenge, below we provide, essentially, a rates-only update that details scheduled state- and local-level wage increases throughout the summer and fall of 2021 so employers can determine the minimum amount they must pay non-exempt, tipped, and certain exempt employees. READ MORE
Conservative economist Art Laffer told Fox News anchor Sandra Smith Tuesday, that many minimum wage workers "aren't worth $15."
Laffer appeared on Fox News alongside economist Austan Goolsbee to weigh the benefits and pitfalls of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour from $7.25 an hour, where it has stayed for many years despite rises in the cost of living. READ MORE
President Biden and Democrats in Congress suffered another setback in their push to boost millions of Americans’ paychecks, after the Senate on Tuesday opted against taking up a bill that supporters said aimed to ensure that women in the workforce earn the same as their male counterparts.
Even with Biden’s public advocacy — and nearly every Democrat voting to try to begin debate on the measure — party leaders could not overcome Republican opposition to advance one of the central promises they made in the course of the 2020 presidential campaign. READ MORE
As the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies and digital assets continues to make waves around the world, good news just keeps flowing from the United States. This time, workers in Miami may choose to be paid in Bitcoin as opposed to in USD.
This move positions the city to be one of the more crypto-friendly cities in the US. Bitcoin is the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency, with it seeing widespread use around the world. From Bitcoin ATMs, to the possibility of E-cars mining Bitcoin while parked, the crypto giant is out to get fiat currencies. READ MORE
Volkswagen AG said Wednesday that former executives including its former chief executive officer would settle claims connected to the car maker's diesel scandal as part of a 288 million-euro($350 million) agreement.
Former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn and former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler agreed to compensate the car maker in relation to the scandal that erupted in 2015. Mr. Winterkorn agreed to pay 11.2 million euros and Mr. Stadler agreed on compensation of EUR4.1 million. READ MORE
Companies without stock or other types of equity have a limited toolbox from which to create customized incentive/retention arrangements for top executives. Salary and bonuses are the first line of attack, but they are mostly short-term focused and involve a one-way outflow of funds. Unfunded “457(f)” deferred compensation plans can achieve incentive/retention goals, but are taxable to the executive (and potentially to the business), also involve a one-way outflow of funds and place the risk of underperformance of funding assets on the company rather than the executive. READ MORE