Why some of the richest Americans pay no federal income taxes

Right before tax season ended last month, ProPublica published a list of the country’s highest earners and how much they pay in taxes, based on a trove of secret IRS files the newsroom obtained last year.

ProPublica reporter Paul Kiel joined Boston Public Radio to explain his findings, including why the ultra-rich — the top 400 earners in the entire country — pay lower income tax rates than affluent Americans, how Tesla founder Elon Musk is paying for Twitter, and his thoughts on proposals to change the country's tax system. READ MORE

Equity Compensation Highlight: Stock Options and Restricted Stock

Start-up and early stage companies commonly offer equity compensation to attract talent, encourage employee retention, and align company and employee interests on business objectives. There are several different types of equity and equity-based awards that a company may potentially utilize. This highlight discusses some of the differences between two common forms of equity awards – stock options and restricted stock. READ MORE

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case Concerning Whether a Highly Paid Supervisor’s Daily Rate is a Salary Under the FLSA

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt, a case addressing whether a supervisor who earned a day rate of $963, and more than $200,000 annually, was paid on a “salary basis” under the FLSA. This question affects the entire spectrum of highly paid white-collar workers whose compensation includes a guaranteed amount, plus additional payments based on an hourly, daily, or per-shift rate. READ MORE

College students expect to make $103,880 after graduation – almost twice the reality

Today's college students expect to make about $103,880 in their first post-graduation job, a survey suggests. But the reality is much lower – as the average starting salary is actually about half that at $55,260, statistics show.

The survey, conducted by Real Estate Witch, found that, across all majors and institutions, undergraduate students overestimate their starting salaries by 88%. And 1 in 3 worry that they won't make enough money to live comfortably after graduation. READ MORE

Amazon announces benefit to pay for US employees who travel for abortions, other treatments

Online retail giant Amazon.com took a firm stance Monday pushing against a prevailing Republican-led push to restrict access to abortion, telling its staff that it would pay up to $4,000 in travel expenses for non-life threatening medical treatments that include abortion.

The move comes as a leaked Supreme Court opinion suggests the conservative-leaning court may op to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark law that makes abortion legal.  READ MORE

What Information Technology Professionals Earn

Is your salary as high as you think it should be? Are you making what your peers are making? Should you be looking for a new job in order to get that salary boost this year? If these are the questions you are looking to answer, we’ve got some insights for you.

InformationWeek checked in with IT professionals across the US to find out whether salaries were going up or down, how many were thinking about finding a new job, and what qualities mattered most to them about their work. The full results are in the InformationWeek 2022 US IT Salary Report (PDF available for free download with site registration to InformationWeek.) READ MORE

PSEG fails to release executive pay despite new disclosure law

PSEG Long Island, citing the potential for "unfair economic and competitive damage," has declined to publicly disclose executive salary figures required by a new state law, drawing rebukes from the statute's authors.

The New Jersey company's disclosure filing with the state Department of Public Service lists top executives of the company's Long Island division but blacks out all salary figures, including for categories such as deferred compensation, bonuses, stock options and life insurance premiums. READ MORE

Justices add new cases on bankruptcy, overtime pay, and federal civil rights claims

The Supreme Court on Monday added three new merits cases to its docket for the 2022-23 term. On a list of ordersfrom the justices’ private conference last week, the justices also called for the views of the U.S. solicitor general in two cases, and they declined to take up a pair of cases involving the differential tax treatment of billboards that advertise services that do not have a connection to the site where they are located.

The justices will likely hear oral argument in the fall in the three merits cases that they granted today: READ MORE

Being open about pay would make it harder to hire minorities? That sounds like corporate BS to me

An average job description these days reads something like this. Duties: Everything from editing short films to creating pivot tables in Excel to wowing clients with interpretative dance! Hours: Every single hour in the day. Qualifications: 15 years in this field, plus a PhD. Compensation: Haha, why would we tell you that? Nah, you’re going to have to waste your time filling in a ton of paperwork and going to a bunch of interviews before we’ll let you in on that little secret. For now, all we can say is that it’s “competitive”. But not so “competitive” that we’re keen to advertise it. READ MORE

Largest Salary Increase in 10 Years for Treasury and Finance Professionals

Now in its 34th year, the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) Compensation Survey was conducted in February 2022. The survey collected data on total compensation earned during the 2021 calendar year, as well as data on base salaries effective January 1, 2022. Key among the findings was the fact that financial professionals gained an average 4.4% base salary increase in 2022, a 1.5% gain over the previous year. The increase in salary breaks down further as a gain of 4.3% for executive- and management-tier professionals, and a gain of 4.5% for the staff-tier. READ MORE

NYC pushes back pay transparency law to the fall

Job listings could get much more interesting in New York City this fall. Starting Nov. 1, employers will be required to post the maximum and minimum salary for a role, so you can actually know how much a job pays before you take that interview.

Why it matters: This is quickly becoming a thing. Salary transparency is believed to be a way to diminish unfair gender and racial pay disparities, and more states and cities are doing it. READ MORE

New York City Council Passes Amended Salary Disclosure Law, Paving the Way for Enactment

On April 28, 2022, the New York City Council passed Int. No. 134-A, which revises Local Law 32, New York City’s previously enacted salary disclosure law. In order to become law, the bill must be signed by New York City Mayor Eric Adams. While the mayor has thirty days to consider the bill, timing is key as the current salary disclosure law is set to take effect on May 15, 2022. If the mayor signs the bill, the effective date of the salary disclosure law would be pushed back to November 1, 2022. READ MORE

Advocates push for salary transparency as states work to close pay gaps

A growing number of cities and states are rolling out laws requiring businesses to be more forthcoming with how much their job openings pay to close the pay gap for women and people of color.

At least seven states and multiple cities have passed laws requiring more transparency with salary information over the last four years. The amount of information required varies between places, but most require salary information to be available upon request or after an interview, with exceptions for small businesses. READ MORE