In January 2018, Tesla announced details of a new contract with its CEO, Elon Musk, that sounded less like an executive-compensation package and more like the premise of a game show. Under the deal, Musk would take no salary but could earn large bundles of stock options each time he raised the company’s value by $50 billion. If it went up by a mere $49,999,999,999, he would leave empty-handed. READ MORE
Equity Compensation Considerations for the Private Company
Establishing an equity-based long-term incentive plan in the private company context presents unique design and planning issues, especially where the private company is not owned by a private equity sponsor (PE fund). Let’s explore various alternatives for the design of equity compensation plans, discuss the pros and cons of each, describe the general tax impact, and highlight other issues that might influence a private company’s decision to implement one alternative over another, or whether to even offer a long-term equity compensation plan at all. READ MORE
15 U.S. states where you need to earn more than $70,000 to make ends meet
The cost of making ends meet can vary by as much as $80,000, depending on which state you live in, a new analysis finds. READ MORE
A sharp increase in female employment drove US payroll gains in July
The total number of employed women rose by 327,000 last month, accounting for more than half of the 528,000 increase in overall payrolls. The advances were particularly strong for Latina women -- the number who are working climbed past 12 million, the highest on record -- and White women. READ MORE
Executive Compensation & Negotiation Essentials for Women Leaders
Staying competitive, especially in a male-dominated profession, can seem like a daunting task for many women. READ MORE
Key to income inequality fight? Location, location, location
It would seem a reasonable assumption that higher wages would draw young adults to a city or a region. But the vast majority of young people don’t move far from home, and even the offer of more money appears to have a very small impact on their willingness to relocate, a new study by Harvard researchers has found, suggesting that economic planners looking to fight income inequality would do better to relocate better jobs closer to the people who need them. READ MORE
Significant Gender Pay Gap Remains for NCAA Referees
Men’s and women’s NCAA basketball referees were paid equally at this year’s March Madness tournaments. While this remains big milestone for the sport and pay equality, referees across NCAA sports are still not paid equally throughout the regular season. READ MORE
What HR needs to know about the growing push for pay transparency
The Great Resignation has prompted many employers to explore why their workers are leaving in droves. One recent survey suggests a major driver of the exodus could be frustration and misunderstanding around pay—news that comes amid a growing push for pay-transparency laws at the state and federal levels. READ MORE
State employee received $185,000 despite not working for 4 years
A custodian with the California Department of General Services collected $185,000 in pay and benefits between 2016 and 2020 despite not showing up for work during much of that period, according to an investigative report from the California State Auditor's Office that was published last week. READ MORE
After Colorado enacted a salary transparency law, job listings dropped—but employment went up
Early data suggests more people want to find work in Colorado now that employers are required to list salary ranges on job postings.
That’s even despite a drop in job openings within the state, according to new research from Recruitonomics, a site that analyzes labor market data. READ MORE
A Deeply Flawed CEO Pay Analysis
The Wall Street Journal has just published an article exploring the connection between pay equity and management effectiveness at big U.S. corporations. The co-authors are affiliated with the Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker Institute, named after Peter Drucker, the widely renowned father of modern business management theory and a champion of “enlightened capitalism” for decades before his passing in 2005. READ MORE
North American boards lag on executive pay ESG links
Far fewer boards at companies in North America are linking their executives’ compensation to ESG than are their peers in Europe, according to new research. READ MORE
What An MBA Employment Report Won’t Tell You
When it comes to reporting compensation, business schools have become highly conservative. You’ll find the average or median starting salaries of their graduates and sign-on bonuses. But one important element of pay that is largely invisible is equity awards, either in the form of restricted stock or stock options. READ MORE
Compensation costs for private industry workers up 5.5 percent from June 2021 to June 2022
Compensation costs for private industry workers increased 5.5 percent from June 2021 to June 2022. Wages and salaries rose 5.7 percent over this period, while the costs of benefits increased 5.3 percent. For state and local government workers, compensation costs increased 3.4 percent from June 2021 to June 2022. READ MORE
Employers rethinking compensation, reward programs as competition for talent continues
North American employers are reevaluating their employee compensation strategies as they struggle to find and keep employees in several key areas.
Two-thirds of employers have increased hiring activity in 2022, according to the WTW 2022 Mid-year Compensation Survey. However, about the same percentage of respondents are having difficulty attracting and retaining employees with digital skills and professional employees, and more than 60% are having problems hiring and keeping hourly employees. READ MORE
Startups have to pay back all that equity compensation someday
Wall Street's lavish bonuses are getting slashed
Last year was a busy, chaotic one on Wall Street. Mergers, acquisitions and new stock listings were going a mile a minute, underpinned by a generally jolly mood. The economy was bouncing back. Vaccines dimmed the risks posed by Covid. Money was essentially free to borrow. There was a war for talent among banks. Champagne for all! READ MORE
Workers in these two industries are the only ones coming out ahead right now
At first glance, it looks like many Americans got big pay raises since the Covid-19 pandemic started.
But in reality, only workers in two industries -- leisure and hospitality and retail trade -- are actually coming out ahead, once inflation is taken into account. READ MORE
CEO reward: Cash or stock?
The issue of chief executive officer compensation is such a headline grabber globally. Every year financial journalists across the globe publish a list of top-earning CEOs. And Kenya is not spared.
But often the missing conversation is whether they deserve those hefty compensation packages. The answer, usually, lies in measuring whether the compensation is commensurate with overall company performance. Take Kenya Airways, for instance. READ MORE
Surprising Applications of U.S. Golden Parachute Rules in Cross-Border Transactions
The “golden parachute” excise tax regime under Internal Revenue Code Sections 280G and 4999 (“Section 280G” and “Section 4999”, respectively) is at the core of both public and private U.S.-based transactions. While often overlooked, it is crucial to remember that the issues raised by Sections 280G and 4999 can – and do – apply to transactions that do not have a clear U.S. nexus. Careful attention should be paid to golden parachute considerations in any cross-border, non-U.S. transaction if a non-U.S. corporation at any level of the transaction structure (1) employs a U.S. taxpayer or (2) takes a U.S. compensation tax deduction. READ MORE