The IPO Equity Compensation Checklist

A company's success depends on its people — especially when it's transitioning from private to public. As part of the IPO process, many startups use equity compensation as one way to attract and retain early talent. But it’s crucial to create a comprehensive, detailed plan covering everything from regulatory compliance and employee communications to ensure your equity compensation plans are ready to get you to, through, and beyond IPO. READ MORE

Pay Governance Research Shows ESG Incentive Metrics Reduce Executive Compensation

Contrary to a belief of some corporate governance experts, the impact of ESG metrics reduced annual incentive payouts for 2021, according to a just-released study by Pay Governance, a premiere board-level executive compensation firm that advises the boards of many prominent publicly traded companies.

“Critics of including ESG in incentive plans have suggested executives were embracing this trend to increase incentive payouts, but those predictions do not hold true when you look at the details,” said Pay Governance Managing Partner Ira Kay. READ MORE

Survey Finds 63% of Organizations Plan to Make Compensation Adjustments in Response to Inflation

Sixty-three percent of executives plan to make compensation adjustments in response to high inflation, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. In March of 2022, Gartner surveyed 157 executives to understand how they are addressing inflation concerns.

A similar survey in April 2022 of 150 executives also showed only one in five organizations are planning for more frequent salary reviews to account for inflation or increasing cost of living expenses. READ MORE

Cryptocurrency as Compensation: A Tax Primer

To say that cryptocurrency is in the headlines is a bit of an understatement. In late April, Fidelity announced that it would allow the 23,000 employers who operate their 401(k) plans on the Fidelity platform to include bitcoin as a permissible investment alternative—in the face of a recent Department of Labor pronouncement that doing so is a glaringly bad idea from the perspective of the fiduciary obligations that inform how 401(k) plan investments are to be selected. READ MORE

Wages are still rising. Because employers are still feeling the pressure to pay more.

The new starting pay for hourly workers at Apple is $22 an hour — at least — after the company increased its compensation budget, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Target made a similar announcement back in February. This all tracks, of course, because wages are still rising in this economy as employers across the board feel pressure to pay more. How long that pressure might last, however, is an open question. READ MORE

The Fast Food Industry Runs on Wage Theft

Let us now praise fast food workers.

At a time when the media paints heroic depictions of well-salaried office employees quitting their jobs to pursue their passions, some 2.6 million people still toil at White Castle, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., and the outlets of other fast food chains in the United States alone. They work late nights and early mornings (sometimes in succession) and face a greater risk of being murdered on the job than cab drivers or liquor store employees. What’s more, they often work for free. READ MORE

Female CEO’s pay rose 26% in 2021, but ranks remain small

Pay packages for the women who run S&P 500 companies jumped in 2021 as the economy recovered and stock prices and profits soared.

Median pay for the women occupying the corner office rose to nearly $16 million, according to the annual survey done by Equilar for The Associated Press. Still, experts say there’s much more to be done to improve gender diversity in the corporate ranks and close the pay gap between men and women. READ MORE

Salaries at the Big Four in New York

The woes of Big Four employees are well known. Last year, a consultant at one firm told eFinancialCareers, “we work front office hours for a back office salary.” Then, when the Big Four hiked wages in the wake of rising investment bank pay, employees found they still earned considerably less than their counterparts at banks. Now, a junior auditor in London is facing a £50k ($63k) fine for his role in Carillion’s accounting scandal. Looking at 2022 H1B Visa Data for Big Four employees in New York – which show the base salaries for workers requiring visa sponsorship, i.e. foreigners – the monetary sorrows don’t appear to be going away. READ MORE