Most Americans Will Get an Average of a 5.8% Raise by Changing Jobs

If you're not happy with your current salary and are considering a job change, you're not alone. The COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on a lot of American workers' personal finances. Millions were left out of work. Others who fell ill with the virus saw an increase in healthcare costs. And parents of school-age children were left feeding and entertaining them largely at home, leading to increased childcare costs. Not to mention that inflation has risen to a level not seen in 13 years, meaning that it simply costs more to do everyday things like shopping for groceries and filling up your gas tank. READ MORE

CEO on why giving all employees minimum salary of $70,000 still "works" six years later: "Our turnover rate was cut in half"

It was six years ago when CEO Dan Price raised the salary of everyone at his Seattle-based credit card processing company Gravity Payments to at least $70,000 a year.

Price slashed his own salary by $1 million to be able to give his employees a pay raise. He was hailed a hero by some and met with predictions of bankruptcy from his critics. 

But that has not happened; instead, the company is thriving. READ MORE

Compensation Levels Mostly Unchanged Year-Over-Year, but Cash Compensation Lower and Partially Offset by Equity Opportunities

In 2020, amid the vast economic uncertainty from COVID-19, median total compensation for CEOs (excluding change in pension value) in the S&P 500 rose 2.3 percent and remained roughly flat for CEOs in the Russell 3000, according to a new report.

The Conference Board analysis also reveals that both indices saw decreases in median CEO base salary and annual bonuses. Median base salary declined 4.2 percent for the S&P 500 and 6.4 percent for the Russell 3000. While median annual bonuses generally increased across most business sectors, in aggregate, median bonuses declined by 5 percent for the S&P 500 and 4.1 percent for the Russell 3000, driven by a larger proportion of companies in sectors that saw decreases in bonuses. Equity opportunities (stock awards and stock options) were roughly flat for the S&P 500 and saw a slight 1 percent increase for the Russell 3000. READ MORE

81% Of Employers Have No Post-Pandemic Compensation Strategy For Remote Workers

Remote work, or some amount of workplace flexibility, is going to be expected by the workforce when the pandemic ends — at least among office workers, according to research released today by Payscale. But while 43% of workers overall expect remote work options to increase after the pandemic, only 50% of organizations say they will have a flexible or hybrid office after the pandemic.

In addition, 81% of employers do not have a compensation strategy that encompasses remote workers, although they are concerned about the impact. READ MORE

5 Equity Compensation Considerations For Your Company's IPO Journey

1. Your Equity Compensation Philosophy Will Be A Core Part Of Your Plan

Despite its lofty name, a compensation philosophy is a down-to-earth document that formally outlines a framework for employee compensation as well as the rationale. Yours should address attracting new talent as well as retaining and motivating current employees. And for most pre-IPO companies, the use of equity in the compensation philosophy is critical. READ MORE

FedEx Faces Labor Union Challenge Over Billionaire CEO's Pay

FedEx Corp shareholders should reject founder and CEO Fred Smith's $54 million pay package because the logistics company gave him stock options after scrapping a cash bonus in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, only to reinstate it later, the Teamsters labor union said on Friday.

Smith, whose net worth is pegged by Forbes at $5.8 billion, was given a special option award "for motivation and retention purposes" in June 2020 after FedEx canceled a $3.4 million cash bonus for him, citing uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic. READ MORE

Employers Can’t Avoid Colorado’s Compensation-Posting Rules By Excluding Colorado Workers

When Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (“EPEWA”) went into effect at the beginning of 2021, Colorado became the first state in the U.S. to require employers to disclose compensation (or a range of compensation) in its public job postings. The far-reaching job-posting requirements, intended to combat pay discrimination, have had some unintended consequences. Most notably, the law has made national headlines as some employers have attempted to avoid the compensation-posting requirements by excluding Colorado workers from applying to remote job listings with phrases like “the position may not be performed remotely from Colorado” or “role can be performed anywhere in the United States except Colorado.” READ MORE

FTC fines Capital One’s CEO $638,000 for not reporting stock compensation

Capital One Chief Executive Officer Richard Fairbank was hit with a $637,950 civil penalty to settle charges he broke US antitrust laws when he failed to report stock compensation in 2018, the Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday.

Fairbank initially failed to report receiving more than 100,000 shares of the company’s stock that year, violating a law that requires companies and individuals to report such large transactions to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice. The CEO corrected the error in December 2019, the FTC said in a statement. READ MORE

IBM sued again by its own sales staff: IT giant accused of going back on commission payments promise

IBM has been sued by sales manager Mark Briggs for allegedly capping sales commission payments despite a written commitment not to do so, joining dozens of cases claiming Big Blue screws its sales staff.

The lawsuit [PDF], filed in a US federal district court in Northern California on Friday, challenges IBM's practice of insisting that it does not have a contractual obligation to pay commissions spelled out in written documents provided to its employees. It is at least the 30th lawsuit since 2014 in which IBM has argued its "incentive plan letters" are not enforceable contracts. READ MORE

Flexible pay will be essential for the hybrid era

For managing the performance pay in an effective manner, the performance objectives should be focussed on a particular outcome, be specific, attainable, measurable, related to time which is mostly at an individual level. According to Nimitt Thakkar, Assistant General Manager HR, CapitalVia Global Research Ltd, at the organization level, goals of cost control, rising efficiency, increasing productivity, project completion and customer service are prominent and for such goals, flexible pay and benefits become important. Organizations also try to motivate their employees, not only through monetary flexible components, but also make best use of the non-monetary flexible benefit programs. READ MORE

Why The SEC Is Re-Examining CEOs’ Trading Practices

Earlier this year, the SEC began to explore changes that would bring improper use of these plans to heel. This new focus comes not so long after executives of pharmaceutical companies sold a collective half a billion dollars of stock in 2020 – frequently through such plans.

In examining 10b5-1 plans, the SEC has shown a spotlight on a pervasive problem trend in the realm of executive compensation – the use of supposedly long-term tools for short-term pay. The reasonable goal of a 10b5-1 plan is to schedule the sale of a set amount of stock on a regular basis. But about a third of plans since 2004 involve just a single trade. Clearly, what was intended to be a tool to provide structured liquidity over time is being gamed to provide one-off paydays instead. READ MORE

Duty of “Good Faith and Fair Dealing” Ensures Your Executive Compensation is not Taken Away from You

Have you been cheated out of a benefit you earned on the job?  Was your job terminated for no good reason when you were on the eve of making a big score?  Do you think you were fired just so the company could keep the money or equity and not pay you?

Even as a C-level, VP or other senior executive, you, like most executives, are likely to be an employee “at will”.  And as an at-will employee, you may think there is nothing you can do when you have been deprived of what you rightfully earned as your executive compensation. READ MORE

USPS has shorted some workers’ pay for years

Nancy Campos’ back ached as she loaded more than 100 Amazon packages onto her truck. The 59-year-old grandmother, a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, had worked 13 days in a row without a lunch break, and now she was delivering on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to keep up with a never-ending flow of boxes.

At the end of her shift that January day, Campos filled out her time sheet. Then she took a picture of it — for proof. READ MORE

Apple just banned a pay equity Slack channel but lets fun dogs channel lie

Apple has barred employees from creating a Slack channel to discuss pay equity. A member of the employee relations team, Apple’s version of HR, said that while the topic was “aligned with Apple’s commitment to pay equity,” it did not meet the company’s Slack Terms of Use.

“Slack channels are provided to conduct Apple business and must advance the work, deliverables, or mission of Apple departments and teams,” the employee relations representative told employees. READ MORE

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