Salary Negotiations Could Become Moot Point with Pay Transparency

A common axiom brought up in the pay equity discussion is that men are more likely to negotiate higher salaries than women, which exacerbates gender pay gaps. New data from Pew Research CenterOpen in a new tab supports this notion, but the gap between men and women negotiating pay is much smaller than one might suspect. 

Pew’s data found that 32% of men surveyed asked for higher pay than what was offered to them for their most recent role versus 28% of women doing the same. Previous data indicated that men initiate negotiations about four times as often as womenOpen in a new tab.  READ MORE

Latest trends in executive compensation

The latest trends in executive compensation include:

  1. Increased emphasis on performance-based pay: There is a growing trend towards tying executive compensation more closely to performance. This includes the use of stock options, restricted stock units, and other equity-based compensation plans that align the interests of executives with those of shareholders.

  2. Greater scrutiny of pay ratios: Companies are facing greater scrutiny over the ratio of CEO pay to that of the average worker. This has led to increased efforts to address income inequality, such as raising the minimum wage, expanding benefits, and reducing pay gaps.

  3. Greater emphasis on long-term incentives: Many companies are shifting towards long-term incentives, such as multi-year performance-based awards, in order to encourage executives to focus on the long-term health of the company rather than short-term gains.

  4. Use of clawback provisions: Clawback provisions are becoming more common, which allow companies to recover executive compensation if the executive engages in misconduct or if the company's financial results are later found to be incorrect.

  5. Increased disclosure: There is growing demand for greater transparency around executive compensation, with increased disclosure of the components of executive pay, the rationale for specific compensation decisions, and the process used to determine executive pay levels.

These trends are likely to continue in the coming years as shareholders, regulators, and the general public continue to demand greater accountability and transparency from companies and their leaders.

A running list of states and localities that have outlawed pay history questions

State and local governments are increasingly adopting laws and regulations that prohibit employers from requesting salary history information from job applicants.

The laws are aimed at ending the cycle of pay discrimination and some go further than merely banning pay history questions. A few also prohibit an employer from relying on an applicant’s pay history to set compensation if discovered or volunteered; others prohibit an employer from taking disciplinary action against employees who discuss pay with coworkers. READ MORE

Meta workers grill Mark Zuckerberg over executive bonuses amid layoffs

Meta employees demanded that CEO Mark Zuckerberg explain why top executives at Facebook’s parent company were given bonuses while thousands of their colleagues were being laid off, according to a report.

“Why did the entire executive team get EE/GE ratings when they are also directly responsible for the choices that led to us needing to lay off 20+% of the company?” a frustrated employee asked his boss during a town hall meeting convened by “the Zuck” on Thursday. READ MORE

This Millionaire CEO Is Getting Dragged For Her Rant Against Employee Compensation Concerns

A video of Andi Owen — the CEO of furniture company MillerKnoll Inc. — telling employees to not be concerned about not getting a bonus this year has gone viral.

The viral clip comes from a 75-minute town hall meeting from last month where Owen addressed this question by employees: "How can we stay motivated if we're not gonna get a bonus? What can we do?" READ MORE

Bed Bath & Beyond didn’t pay severance to thousands of workers

In early February, Diane Zaccagna learned that the Bed Bath & Beyond store in New Jersey where she had been working for 18 and a half years was closing and she would be laid off.

“We knew Bed Bath was in trouble, but we thought we would have at least a couple more years,” said Zaccagna, 50, who started out as a part-time employee and climbed her way to a merchandise supervisor. READ MORE

Stop paying people for not working

A policy question these days that has befuddled federal lawmakers is why so many millions of people have not returned to the workplace in the post-COVID-19 era. The labor force participation rate among employable adults is near a record low today. There are at least 2 million to 4 million employable adults who could and should be working but aren't.  

Very few people with even minimal skills can credibly say they can't find a job. Employers report some 10 million job openings. Small business owners say their biggest problem is finding competent workers.  READ MORE

Bosses pay workers to move closer to offices

Companies are bringing back relocation benefits, paying for workers to move across the country and around the world again, in a sign of how much bosses really do want workers back in the office. 

Job postings in the U.S. that mention relocation benefits were up nearly 75% as of February, the latest month available, when compared with the prior year, according to hiring platform Indeed.com. On ZipRecruiter, job ads that tout relocation money have more recently doubled to 3.8 million, after falling under two million in 2020.  READ MORE

‘No one was actually working’: Worker says employees at former tech job could choose their own salary

The recent tech layoffs, paired with the current economic downturn, have put more eyes on the tech industry, its hiring practices, and the actual work being done by employees.

Former employees from tech giants like Meta have claimed they were paid six-figure salaries to “do nothing.” Another tech employee sarcastically described the actions of a 6 hour workday as “chang[ing] a button from blue to a slightly different blue.” A recent Wall Street Journal article details numerous complaints from former tech employees about the lack of work given to them on the job, with one employee saying they received only one assignment in nearly 8 months with the company. READ MORE

How companies can respond to new salary transparency laws

One of the largest trends for U.S. hiring in 2023 is the push for pay transparency. After a flurry of local and state legislation last year, 2023 begins with employers facing uncharted hiring territory. Already more than 1 in 4 Americans live in cities or states with laws requiring pay transparency in hiring practices.

Adding to this momentum, a sustained, robust hiring market and the democratization of access to potential employers through online job boards empowered job candidates to become more selective in where they apply. With 6 in 10 job seekers (62%) reporting that including a salary range in a job posting is the most important driver for deciding whether to apply for a position, employers are primed to act. READ MORE

US executive pay bucked falling stock market in 2022

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here.
https://www.ft.com/content/d592c347-5628-4e8a-aab1-3bb6e7c33dce

Moderna, Simon Property Group and Marriott are among at least 107 S&P 500 companies that gave their chief executives pay increases last year even as their shares declined, according to regulatory disclosures. More than a third of S&P 500 companies awarded executives more pay for 2022 than in 2021 even though they had negative total shareholder returns last year, according to a preliminary analysis of regulatory findings conducted by ISS Corporate Solutions (ICS) for the Financial Times. READ MORE

US Women Now Make as Much or More Than Men in Half of Marriages

In almost half of opposite-sex marriages in the US, women now earn at least as much or more than their husbands.

Nearly one-third of wives earn roughly the same amount as their husbands, while the woman is the primary or sole breadwinner in 16% of marriages, according to a Pew Research Center report released Thursday. Combined, that’s a record high and a threefold surge from 50 years ago, when four in five households relied primarily on the man’s income. READ MORE