It's bad enough that President Joe Biden held a James Taylor celebratory concert yesterday after a terrible consumer inflation report with soaring prices for food and groceries, electricity, natural gas, cars, medical care—pretty much everything besides a drop in gasoline —with a near 1,300-point stock market selloff and 30-year mortgage rates jumping up to almost 7%, decimating the housing sector. READ MORE
Median U.S. income remained stagnant while supplemental poverty levels showed significant decrease last year, Census Bureau finds
Americans are still feeling the impacts of the pandemic economy as median household incomes have remained stagnant or declined for two years in a row, according to new government data.
"Real median household income was $70,784 in 2021," the Census Bureau said in its report on Income in the United States. "This estimate is not statistically different from the 2020 estimate of $71,186 and 2.8% lower than the 2019 median, the year before the most recent recession." READ MORE
Most US Companies Are Willing to List Salaries in Job Descriptions
A majority of companies might soon include salary information as part of US job postings even where it’s not required by law, according to data released Wednesday, as competition for new workers increases pressure to be transparent on pay. READ MORE
New SEC pay versus performance rules to increase information reporting regarding executives: What you will need to include in your next proxy statement
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) recently adopted final rules to implement Section 14(i) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Act”), required by Section 953(a) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The new rules add Item 402(v) of Regulation S-K (“Item 402(v)”), which requires a public company to disclose the relationship between executive compensation and the company’s financial performance. READ MORE
SEC Adopts Pay Versus Performance Rule on Executive Compensation
In the years following the banking and financial crisis of 2008, there was a particular focus by the media and lawmakers on CEOs and other executives collecting hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. In response, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”) sought to “strengthen the transparency and quality of executive compensation disclosure to investors.” READ MORE
The Tricky Business of Classifying Independent Workers
Determining how to classify independent contractors versus employees might seem straightforward on the surface. But what appears to be a simple issue is quite complicated.
The decisions as to how to classify workers and the companies that provide them with opportunities to work differs in each state and thus, suggesting rules which will apply federally is dangerous, as each state enforces the classification issue in theoretically different ways. READ MORE
Hard Rock, Seminole Gaming investing $100M to raise US employee starting wages
Hard Rock International and Seminole Gaming announced on Tuesday a $100 million investment to raise starting wages for half of its U.S. workforce at company-managed hotel, café and casino locations nationwide. READ MORE
Federal contract workers call for wages to keep pace with inflation
Employees working for the largest federal food service contractor, Sodexo, are raising concerns about lagging wages to Congress in hopes lawmakers will support more competitive wages on government contracts.
Members of Unite Here, a labor union representing 300,000 employees across various industries, picketed outside the Federal Reserve building in New York last week, saying inflation further erodes wages that already lag behind the private sector. And on Sept. 13, members who work in the House of Representatives, the FBI and Fannie Mae will rally in Washington, D.C. READ MORE
Soft Wages Hinder US Public Sector’s Job Recovery
Employment at US state and local governments will take another three years to fully recover from the mass layoffs of the pandemic recession, partly due to struggles in matching private-sector wage increases, according to Morgan Stanley economists. READ MORE
Say goodbye to the standard 3% raise—one-quarter of employers plan to give increases of 5-7% next year
Annual pay raise budgets in the U.S. are getting a bump in 2023 from the longtime status quo.
“The increases have gone up from what had been 3% for many years,” David Turetsky, VP of consulting at Salary.com, told me. “It’s now budgeted for 4% and potentially higher for next year.” READ MORE
Base pay comprises as little as 37% of startup exec comp: study
When it comes to executive compensation for younger and growing companies there are signs that the pace of increased executive compensation is not sustainable in the wake of slowing venture capital funding for startup firms, the report states. READ MORE
What is a compensation committee: Roles, responsibilities and best practices
A compensation committee is the portion of a corporate or nonprofit board that selects and reviews salary and other forms of compensation. It must balance the organization’s financial realities with investor expectations and ultimately create competitive retention strategies. Compensation committee responsibilities include advising the board and strategically selecting what to include in a compensation package. READ MORE
Boosting wages for new hires? What that means to your current employees
Amid the battle to attract and retain talent—and stay competitive as inflation remains high—many employers are upping the ante for potential hires.
But, a new survey finds, that attention on wooing employees is much to the chagrin of current employees, many of whom are suffering from financial stress as they reel from the soaring cost-of-living and seek help from employers in the form of compensation increases. READ MORE
10 questions to understand how pay works at your company
It’s rare for companies to provide much transparency about how they make pay decisions. But, as laws are being passed mandating pay ranges be shared in job postings, withholding information regarding pay will become more challenging for employers. READ MORE
2023 Salary Budgets Projected to Stay at 20-Year High
Salary increase budgets in the U.S. are projected to grow, on average, just over 4 percent for 2023, less than half of the current annual inflation rate of 8.5 percent, according to new survey data. READ MORE
4 Ways to Negotiate For a Higher Salary and Make More Money
The ability to negotiate is a key skill in business, even more so when accepting a job offer or getting promoted to a new position. However, chances are you probably didn't ask for enough money.
According to research, less than a third of people successfully negotiate their salary to increase their earnings. The majority simply aren't comfortable enough with asking for a pay raise. READ MORE
New jobs report shows salary increases are nearly on par with inflation
A new report from ADP suggests that employers are continuing to add jobs – though fewer new employees were added to the payroll in August compared to July. According to the ADP National Employment Report, while there were 270,000 new jobs added to the economy in July, only 132,000 jobs were added in August, representing a reduction in growth of over 50%. READ MORE
ESG and executive compensation
Incentive plans for corporate executives have been linked to financial metrics for many years. Adding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics to these compensation plans is a more recent development—especially over the last 10 years—as companies increasingly want ESG goals to be taken seriously by the senior management team. READ MORE
SEC rule amendments require proxy disclosure of executive pay versus performance
On August 25, the SEC adopted rule amendments that require registrants to disclose, in proxy or information statements in which executive compensation disclosure is required, information showing the relationship between compensation actually paid to their named executive officers and the company’s financial performance. Emerging growth companies, foreign private issuers, and registered investment companies are not subject to the new requirements, which apply in scaled form to smaller reporting companies. READ MORE
SEC Adopts Long-Awaited Pay Versus Performance Disclosure Rule
On August 25, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission, in a 3-2 vote, adopted a new disclosure rule implementing the Dodd-Frank Act’s requirement that public companies disclose the relationship between compensation paid to executives and the company’s financial performance. SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s stated purpose of the new rule, commonly known as the “pay versus performance” disclosure requirement, is to promote transparency and make it easier for shareholders to assess a public company’s decision-making with respect to its executive compensation policies. READ MORE