The salary gap female startup CEOs face won’t go away

The early-stage startup CEO salary gap is worse today than it was in 2019, even after a record-breaking funding year in venture capital.

At the beginning of the pandemic, early-stage female startup CEOs took a disproportionately higher pay cut than men, according to data from startup accounting firm Kruze Consulting. While female startup CEOs’ salaries have since crept up since the initial plunge, the boom times of 2021 didn’t close the pay gap created by the pandemic. In fact, the pay gap is four times wider in 2022 than it was in late 2019 for early-stage startup CEOs. READ MORE

Amazon Shareholders Almost Voted Down Executive Pay. Here's the Brutal Truth Every Leader Should Learn

Last week, shareholders came within 6 percentage points of voting down Amazon's proposed executive compensation. Nine days later, Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon's worldwide consumer division and a 23-year Amazon veteran, announced his resignation. With compensation of more than $55 million, Clark was Amazon's fourth highest-paid executive, after CEO Andy Jassy, executive chair Jeff Bezos, and CFO Brian Olsavsky. READ MORE

Biden Pushes Expanded Wage Mandates That Exacerbate Inflation

In an op-ed published in the May 31 edition of the Wall Street Journal, President Joe Biden writes that the “most im­portant thing we can do now to tran­si­tion from rapid re­cov­ery to sta­ble, steady growth is to bring inflation down.” Yet, while saying that, President Biden’s administration is in the process of advancing new regulations that will make inflation, already the highest in four decades, even worse. READ MORE

How To Negotiate A Salary With A New Employee

Every year, millions of people join the workforce and begin their search for the perfect job. While many factors come into play when choosing a position, salary is often one of the most important.

Employers may also find it difficult to offer a salary that meets both their needs and the needs of their employees. From preparing for the negotiation to understanding common negotiating tactics, there are many factors employers must keep in mind when entering into salary negotiations. Luckily, there are a few tips and tricks that every employer can use to make the negotiation process a little bit easier. READ MORE

How To Negotiate Your Salary (While Keeping the Offer)

There's never been a time in history when a higher salary didn't seem like an attractive prospect. But with costs of living rising and inflation soaring, it's more important than ever to ensure you're being fairly compensated for your work. If you're a director, VP or executive, you should have all the skills and experience needed to secure a good wage — yet many people shy away from negotiation out of the fear it will result in them losing the offer.

Sound familiar? Let's break down the art of salary negotiation. READ MORE

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