Excessive CEO pay is coming under threat. Workers at large companies are speaking out against big CEO pay raises while investors at roughly two dozen major U.S. companies have rejected generous executive-pay packages in shareholder votes in the past year, balking at the massive pay gaps between chief executives and workers. READ MORE
Executive Recruiters Enjoying Best Run in Over 20 Years
Performance-related pay is helping drive total compensation upwards in the executive search industry, according to an early preview of Tempting Talent’s USA Executive Search & Recruitment Compensation Report for 2022. That and a growing degree of collaboration with executive search firms in the Silicon Valley venture capital community and across private equity are contributing to an optimistic outlook for the industry, despite an ongoing pandemic, inflation, fear of a recession, and the reverberations of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, among other challenges. READ MORE
Is it Groundhog Day? SEC reopens comment period for clawback proposal
Yesterday, the SEC announced that it is reopening the comment period for its 2015 proposal for listing standards for recovery of erroneously awarded compensation. Wait—didn’t they just do that? Yes, in October 2021. (See this PubCo post.) But no, that’s not Sonny and Cher on the radio. The SEC has decided to reopen the comment period AGAIN to allow further public comment in light of a new, just released DERA staff memorandum containing “additional analysis and data on compensation recovery policies and accounting restatements.” The new comment period will be open until 30 days after publication of the reopening notice in the Federal Register. READ MORE
The Earnout: Contingent Purchase Price or Compensation?
Compared to the torrid pace of M&A transactions last year, the current year seems rather pedestrian. That is not to say businesses are not being sold; they are. The purchase and sale of a business is one of the natural alternative paths in the evolution of the business. READ MORE
Why Retirees are Returning to Work — It’s Not for the Paycheck
There might be a Great Resignation going on in some parts of the American workforce, but other parts are witnessing a Great Unretirement. A recent report from the AARP, citing data from the Indeed employment website, found that 1.7 million Americans who retired a year earlier have returned to the workforce. That represents just more than 3% of overall retirees. READ MORE
These 3 factors could end the pay gap
Every year, Equal Pay Day is a reminder of the gender pay gap, marking how far into the year women in the U.S. must work to earn the same amount as men did the previous year. This year, the day fell on March 15, 2022. READ MORE
Wages are rising at their fastest pace in decades. Here's how that stacks up with inflation
The white-hot labor market has driven up wages faster than at any time since the mid-1980s, as employers struggle to attract -- and retain -- workers.
But Americans aren't rolling in dough. Inflation has also surged, with the Consumer Price Index rising by 8.3% in the 12 months ending in April. This means the cost of essentials is eating away at workers' fatter paychecks. READ MORE
Don’t Use Compensation as a Babysitter
Have you ever used a babysitter? This is when you have someone else assume your responsibilities while you take a break and focus on something else. The babysitter stands in for you and is you during the period of your absence. READ MORE
Location, Location, Location: The State of Geographic Pay Differentials
The coronavirus pandemic has proven that, by and large, remote work works.
As a result, the workforce is more dispersed than ever, and it’s likely to stay that way. And, with employees’ newfound ability to work from anywhere, geographic pay differentials have been thrust into the spotlight during the past two-plus years of the COVID era. READ MORE
Bezos Was Wrong, and Biden Was Right: Taxing the Wealthy Will Help Tame Inflation
A new report in The Wall Street Journal unintentionally sheds light on what economists, including Lawrence Summers, have long known: Higher taxes reduce spending. READ MORE
5 States With The Highest State Income Tax Burdens
Depending on your income in 2021, you may be feeling the pain of paying your state and federal income taxes. Some of you reading this post may be feeling a bit more pain based on the state within which you live, how you earn your income, and whether or not you own a home. The overall tax burden can vary widely from state to state. READ MORE
New York City Council Amends Wage Transparency Law
In 2021, New York City joined the growing list of cities and states requiring employers to include salary ranges in job postings. This law was expected to go into effect on May 15, 2022. However, after heeding concerns raised by many groups pertaining to ambiguities in the law, the New York City Council passed an amended version of the New York City Pay Transparency Law that postpones its effective date to November 1, 2022. READ MORE
Feeling Pinched on a $250,000 Salary? Just Wait.
How much does it take to feel flush in the US these days? Not even $250,000 a year will get you there, according to a recent survey by Pymnts.com and LendingClub Corp., which found that 36% of those earning at least that amount say they’re living paycheck to paycheck. READ MORE
Wage gap between CEOs and US workers jumped to 670-to-1 last year, study finds
The wage gap between chief executives and workers at some of the US companies with the lowest-paid staff grew even wider last year, with CEOs making an average of $10.6m, while the median worker received $23,968. READ MORE
Bank CEOs who got the heftiest raises last year
While most bank CEOs got pay hikes last year, the raises were bigger for some than others.
KeyCorp Chief Executive Chris Gorman received a 64% boost in total direct compensation in 2021, Washington Federal CEO Brent Beardall got a 60% raise, and Comerica CEO Curtis Farmer was awarded a 48% pay bump. READ MORE
CEOs are enjoying huge paydays while their workers struggle to pay bills
Despite all the buzz about the "Great Resignation" and a renaissance for the working classes in America, a new report finds the gap between executive and worker pay is only widening.
The typical low-wage worker's pay didn't keep pace with inflation last year at more than a third of the companies reviewed by the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank. IPS' survey included the 300 publicly traded companies with the lowest median pay for workers. READ MORE
Bolt Loaned Employees Thousands to Buy Stock—Then Laid Them Off
In late May, employees of the fintech startup Bolt saw a message from their CEO on the company’s Slack. It warned them that “restructuring” was coming, and they should look out for a calendar invitation: One group would join a meeting with human resources, meaning they were being laid off, while another would go to a “town hall,” meaning they still had a job. READ MORE
U.S. Minimum Wage, Tipped, and Exempt Employee Pay Increases Will Heat Up This Summer (And Possibly Other Seasons)
Minimum wage laws can affect businesses of all sizes, whether operating nationwide, in multiple jurisdictions, or only in one state, county, or city. To help manage this challenge, below we provide, essentially, a rates-only update that summarizes scheduled state- and local-level wage increases throughout the summer and fall of 2022. Employers can use this information to determine the minimum amount they must pay non-exempt, tipped, and certain exempt employees. Before we chart out these rates, we briefly highlight some notable wage and hour developments that have occurred in 2022, and discuss the notable economic development that has affected, and likely will continue to affect, wage-hour law: inflation. READ MORE
Google contractors say a recruiting company has been systematically skimming their pay
A group of Google contractors says they’ve been underpaid by the agency that recruited them, resulting in thousands of dollars in unpaid wages per affected worker. The earliest reports occurred as long ago as 2019, and workers say the payroll errors are happening so regularly that they believe it to be a kind of systematic wage theft. READ MORE
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