Biden's new minimum billionaire tax will hit middle class
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist squashed President Biden's claim that his new minimum billionaire tax will only impact the rich, arguing that it will also hit the middle class. READ MORE
New pay transparency laws can help in salary negotiations
It’s the dreaded question in a job interview — how much do you expect to make? But, as of this May, new salary-transparency laws in New York City will change the way that the awkward topic is broached by both job seekers and employers. READ MORE
Google execs cornered by employees at all-hands, demanding to know why Amazon and Apple are paying more
The zeitgeist of Google is angry about compensation.
Or should that be the “Googlegeist?”
That’s the name of an annual survey, and Google released the results of the latest edition earlier this month. Though it found that an overwhelming majority of employees are satisfied with the company’s mission and values, as of January, just a little over half said they believed their compensation packages are competitive, a number down from last year. READ MORE
Work friendships aren’t surviving the pandemic. Here’s how that could mean higher pay.
Now, it’s the work friend.
In a survey of almost 1,000 employees by Capterra, a subsidiary of Gartner, just 11% of people ranked relationships with coworkers within their top three factors for job satisfaction. Fifty-two percent of remote employees said having friends on their team was minimally or not at all important. To that end, nobody wants virtual social events, either. READ MORE
Tax Court Weighs in on Reasonable Compensation
The Tax Court recently found that there's indeed a limit on the tax deductibility of wages paid to employees by the employer.
What constitutes a “reasonable” compensation for this purpose? It depends on the particular circumstances. Traditionally, the courts have relied on several key factors to make a determination if compensation is reasonable or not. READ MORE
The Entirely Predictable Impact of Salary Transparency
On March 8, companies in the UK jumped on social media to promote themselves during International Women’s Day—posting about how strong and inspiring their female employees are and how hard they have worked to break biases in the workplace. But GenderPayGapBot, a Twitter account run by Manchester-based copywriter Francesca Lawson and her software developer partner Ali Fensome, had other ideas. READ MORE
A Primer On Salary Negotiations For Job Candidates
When do salary negotiations begin? To me they begin in the mind of the offerer and also in the mind of the offeree. In this scenario, the offerer's role is as the employer and the offeree is the candidate for employment. Why am I winding back salary negotiations to thoughts in each party's mind? To be a successful offeree or offerer, you have to know who you are working with on the other side of the proverbial table. READ MORE
White House Focuses on Pay Equity and Transparency
While the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 205) is stalled in the U.S. Senate, the White House has called for action on issues relating to pay equity. On March 15, 2022, which was women’s “Equal Pay Day” for 2022 in the United States, President Biden issued an executive order “promoting pay equity and transparency” within the federal workforce and among federal contractors. READ MORE
SEC Reopens Comment Period for Pay-for-Performance Proxy Disclosure
Dodd-Frank was enacted to address financial stability after the 2008 financial crisis by requiring accountability and transparency of SEC registrants.¹ Certain Dodd-Frank provisions required rulemaking by the SEC in order to be implemented. In particular, Section 953(a) of Dodd-Frank (which added Section 14(i) to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) requires the SEC to adopt rules for requiring registrants’ proxy statements to describe the relationship between the executive compensation actually paid and the financial performance of the company. READ MORE
The OFCCP’s New Compensation Directive: A Lot Below the Surface
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (OFCCP) new Directive 2022-01, concerning federal contractors’ “obligation to conduct in-depth compensation analysis,” raises issues that will take time to sort out.
The Directive seeks to define federal contractors’ obligations for pay equity self-review under 41 CFR 60-2.17(b)(3), the ‘supply and service’ regulation outlining the gender-, race-, and ethnicity-based affirmative action obligations they must satisfy. READ MORE
Employers Fight 'The Big Quit' with Better Pay, Bonuses and Benefits
The Great Resignation has been hammering the retail industry hard for months. Merchants are scrambling for employees and wringing their hands about how they're going to get enough staff to run the registers, stock shelves, and work in the warehouses. READ MORE
Does a pay cut pay off? An antidote to the Great Resignation
This is a seismic moment in professional America. There’s unprecedented employee churn, a Covid-induced surge in burnout, and supply chain disruptions upending companies and industries.
The instinctive individual response to these pressures is to demand more: more money, more perks, more responsibilities, more status. After all, we’re creatures of maximization. READ MORE
Finding Financial Experts for Audit Committees
What Compensation Can CPAs Expect? READ MORE
Biden pledges to ‘address use of salary history’ in setting federal government pay rates
President Joe Biden has pledged to tackle the use of previous pay rates for setting salaries for federal government jobs – but has stopped short of saying the practice will end.
In an executive order published on Equal Pay Day last week, Biden said that “It is the policy of my administration to eliminate discriminatory pay practices that inhibit the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of the federal workforce and the procurement of property and services by the federal government”. READ MORE
How to Make ESG Pay Links More Effective
Shareholder resolutions requesting companies disclose plans to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 received increased support in the 2021 proxy season. While this is a positive development, companies must do more to cut emissions in half by 2030 to meet the Paris climate treaty goals. One lever in meeting 2050 net-zero pledges is linking executive compensation to hitting climate targets. READ MORE
GE cuts CEO Culp's incentive grant after shareholder rebuke
General Electric Co on Thursday said its Chief Executive Larry Culp would take a 67% cut to an incentive grant this year after shareholders last year rejected his compensation package in a non-binding but rare rebuke over executive pay.
In its annual proxy statement filed on Thursday, the Boston-based industrial conglomerate said Culp's annual equity incentive grant for 2022 will be reduced to $5 million from $15 million. READ MORE
The Evolving Role of ESG Metrics in Executive Compensation Plans
The broad area of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues is undeniably making its way onto corporate boardroom agendas today. Many large institutional shareholders are asking companies to focus more, do more, and disclose more about ESG efforts. In fact, ESG is now the topic most often covered during shareholder engagements that include company directors. READ MORE
Keeping Up With Wages is More Important Than Ever in Today's Tight Labor Market
A year has made quite a difference in the labor market. One of the biggest questions for employers today is how to keep up with wages and salaries constantly on the rise. READ MORE
Pelosi marks Equal Pay Day
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., commented on new Department of Labor data Tuesday showing the wage gap burden on women – especially on women of color – and how the coronavirus pandemic disproportionally left more women and moms jobless.
The data release coincided with an Equal Pay Day event at the Capitol on March 15 – the date that women in the United States must work until to be paid the same amount men were in the prior year. READ MORE