Planned 2022 Salary Increases for American Workers are Trending Upward

Salary.com's Annual U.S. National Salary Budget Survey reveals that 41 percent of organizations plan on having a higher salary increase budget in 2022 than they did in 2021, representing the first significant shift in merit increases in the last 10 years of survey data. For perspective, last year just under 10 percent of organizations planned a higher salary budget increase than the prior year. The survey was conducted in June of 2021 by Salary.com, the leading SaaS provider of cloud-based compensation market data, surveys and analytics. READ MORE

Employers with Illinois Employees: Revise Form Noncompete and Nonsolicitation Provisions Before January 1, 2022

Governor J.B. Pritzker recently signed into law Public Act 102-0358 (“Act”), which dramatically reforms the law in Illinois governing both noncompete and nonsolicit provisions. The Act is not retroactive, and goes into effect on January 1, 2022. All noncompete and nonsolicit provisions entered into “after the effective date” of the Act will be null and void unless they comply with the Act’s requirements. READ MORE

3 trap questions in salary negotiation (and a script for answering them)

Going through the interview process was stressful enough, but now there are trap questions during salary negotiations?

Yes, yes there are. The employer’s job is to get the best candidate at the lowest cost while the new employee is trying to get the highest compensation package. 

Am I the only one who is frustrated by job advertisements that make no mention of salary? The idea of going through a process blind and not knowing what you may be offered can be extremely annoying. Advertisements are structured this way for a reason. READ MORE

Workplace Benefits Could Make the Difference in Ongoing Talent War

Four million Americans voluntarily left the workforce in April 2021 alone ― one of the highest numbers ever recorded. In addition, more are planning or thinking of leaving their jobs, as Microsoft estimates that 41% of employees are contemplating leaving their current positions.

This trend ― the “Great Resignation”― is fueled by employees looking for better pay, greater flexibility and perhaps a career change post-pandemic. Although it’s understandable to worry about how this trend affects your company’s turnover and retention, HR leaders should also view it as an opportunity to attract and retain top talent by listening to their needs and supporting them effectively. READ MORE

Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosures in Proxy Statements: Benchmarking the Fortune 50

It is no secret that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently ramped up its focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures. In February 2021, Acting Chair of the SEC Allison Herren Lee directed the Division of Corporation Finance to enhance focus on climate-related disclosure in public company filings, including reviewing the extent to which public companies address the topics identified in the SEC’s 2010 Guidance Regarding Disclosure Related to Climate Change. Then, in March 2021, she requested public comment on climate change disclosures (which has generated over 600 comment letters, the vast majority of which are supportive of mandatory climate disclosure rules), and new SEC rules on climate risk and human capital disclosures are expected to be proposed yet this year. In addition, holding true to its “all-of-SEC” approach to ESG, the SEC has formed a Climate and ESG Task Force (composed of 22 members and led by the Acting Deputy Director of Enforcement), which will use data analytics to look for material gaps and misstatements in climate risk disclosures under existing rules. READ MORE

CEOs promised to take pay cuts during the pandemic. Did they?

When the pandemic struck last year, many CEOs across the globe announced they’d cut their own salaries. Now that we’re 17 months into this crisis, it prompts the question: Did business leaders go through with this pledge? While the COVID-19 recession was among the hardest initial economic shocks ever experienced, it was also followed by one of the fastest economic recoveries on record. Some businesses even boomed during the pandemic.

To see how many companies followed through on their leadership pay cuts, Fortune partnered with Diligent, a leading New York–based SaaS GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) company. For the analysis, Diligent looked at Russell 3000 companies—an index of the largest 3,000 U.S. companies by market capitalization. READ MORE

You know your salary. But how much are you really making? Calculate your total compensation

So many factors go into deciding whether to quit your job, but pay is a big one.

Even if money isn't your top priority, it's important to figure out how much you're actually getting from your current employer because what you make is more than just your salary or wage.

Estimating your total compensation gives you a truer measure of how much your employer actually spends on you. And it will help you figure out if a new job offer will work as well or better for you financially. READ MORE

Executive MBA vs. traditional MBA: How careers and pay prospects stack up

Since Harvard University established the first MBA program more than 100 years ago, schools have continued to offer a variety of different options. From full-time to part-time and online programs, the MBA offers business professionals the opportunity to advance their careers. This degree helps prepare professionals for management roles or for a transition to a different career path, and an EMBA caters to full-time working professionals who want to reach the highest levels of management in their current industries. READ MORE

Extra unemployment benefits ending soon, leaving millions without an income

Millions of Americans are poised to lose their unemployment benefits in less than one week, as the massive safety net that Congress put in place in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic continues to unravel.  

A report published by the left-leaning Century Foundation found that 7.5 million workers face the loss of jobless aid on Sept. 6 – Labor Day, the official cut-off date for three relief programs that were first created in March 2020 and renewed twice by Congress as the virus forced an unprecedented shutdown of the nation's economy, pushing unemployment to the highest level since the Great Depression. READ MORE

Why Google's Plan to Cut Remote Worker Pay Is a Dumb Idea

Google may reduce the salaries of employees who choose to work at home full-time, based on the cost of living where they live, according to an internal calculator viewed by Reuters. It's an idea that's gaining traction in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. It may seem sensible, given that a salary that barely covers a San Francisco studio apartment might get you a mansion in, say, Topeka. That's the logic Google says it's using. "Our compensation packages have always been determined by location," a spokesperson told Reuters. READ MORE

High pay for COVID-19 nurses leads to shortages at some hospitals

Before the coronavirus pandemic, Ivette Palomeque made $45 an hour on a flexible schedule as a staff intensive-care nurse at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston.

Today, she earns $120 an hour working in an ICU in McAllen, Texas, the latest in a string of "travel nurse" jobs she has held over the past 16 months. The journey that has taken her from Miami to New York City and back to Texas. READ MORE

Biden announces plans to give pay raise to federal employees

President Biden on Friday announced plans to give all federal civilian employees an average 2.7 percent pay raise, consistent with the increases he had proposed in his 2022 budget.

″I have determined that for 2022, the across-the-board base pay increase will be 2.2 percent and locality pay increases will average 0.5 percent, resulting in an overall average increase of 2.7 percent for civilian Federal employees,” Biden wrote in a letter to congressional leaders Friday. READ MORE

Should unvaccinated employees pay more for health insurance?

A sizable share of workers support higher insurance rates for employees not vaccinated against COVID-19, according to new research released before Delta Air Lines DAL, +1.84% announced it would introduce a $200 health-insurance surcharge for its unvaccinated workers.

Some 41% of workers in a national poll conducted by Ipsos for the management consulting firm Eagle Hill Consulting backed insurance-rate hikes for unvaccinated workers, with baby boomers showing the highest level of support (45%) and Gen Z respondents showing the lowest (23%). READ MORE

U.S. income inequality could be pushing interest rates lower

Economists have long attributed the decline in U.S. interest rates primarily to the country's aging population, with other factors such as slower growth also playing a role.

But a steady rise in income inequality may be the bigger force driving rates down, according to a new paper released on Friday during the annual Jackson Hole research conference held virtually by the Kansas City Federal Reserve. READ MORE

Dividend-Protected Stock Compensation Awards

The recipients of stock compensation awards may be entitled to the dividends that companies pay on their underlying equity shares, while the stock awards are still outstanding but not vested (ASC 718-10-55-45). FASB considers these divided-protected stock awards as participating securities under certain conditions. Share-based payments that include dividend-protection features, such as dividend payments or adjustments to the exercise price for dividends declared, have certain accounting implications for both expense recognition and earnings per share (EPS) calculations. READ MORE

Employers, workers have different recruiting and retention incentives in mind, report suggests

"Pandemic-weary" employees are "tired and looking for change," Neil Dhar, vice chair and consulting solutions co-leader at PwC, said in the call. With quit rates recently reaching an all-time high and workers reporting extremely high rates of burnout, the survey results suggest that many employees are looking for fundamental, tangible changes to their work life — whether that be tolerance for flexible work hours, increased compensation or a better slate of benefits. READ MORE

The $1 million question of higher capital gains taxes under Biden, answered

When the Treasury Department first explained in late spring how a proposed higher tax on investment profits would work if approved by Congress, it left some financial advisors and tax experts scratching their heads.

A new capital gains rate, nearly double the existing 23.8%, would kick in on profits and qualified dividends banked by earners making at least $1 million a year, the government agency said. READ MORE

American CEOs make 351 times more than workers. In 1965 it was 15 to one

Last week, the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan thinktank, released a report on the increasing pay gap between chief executives and workers. This research tells a familiar story with updated figures. When taking into account stocks, which now make up more than 80% of the average CEO’s compensation package, the report found that chief-executive pay has risen by an astounding 1,322% since 1978. That’s more than six times more than the top 0.1% of wage earners and more than 73 times higher than the growth of the typical worker’s pay, which grew by only 18% in the same time period. Most remarkable, however, is the 18.9% increase in CEO compensation between 2019 and 2020 alone. READ MORE