Will wages outpace inflation for long? It depends on the job

Wages are now finally beating inflation, according to the latest quarterly data on wage growth. But, with a widely expected recession still looming, that might not last. That is, unless you work in a certain industry.

In the first three months of the year, median weekly earnings for full-time and salaried workers were 6.1% higher compared to the same period a year ago, outpacing the 5.8% increase in consumer prices during that period. And Friday’s jobs report showed that workers’ paychecks grew in April by 16 cents, or 0.5%, to $33.36 an hour on average. That was the biggest monthly increase since March 2022, though wage growth had gradually slowed since then. READ MORE

Penalties for excessive compensation in not for profit organizations

Not-for-profit organizations are subject to rules and regulations governing their compensation practices. If a not-for-profit organization pays excessive compensation to its executives or employees, it may face penalties from both the government and the public.

The penalties for excessive compensation in not-for-profits may include:

  1. Loss of Tax-Exempt Status: If the IRS determines that a not-for-profit organization has paid excessive compensation, it may revoke the organization's tax-exempt status. This can result in the organization having to pay taxes on its income, which can be a significant financial burden.

  2. Fines and Penalties: The IRS can also impose fines and penalties on not-for-profit organizations that pay excessive compensation. These penalties can be substantial and can include both monetary fines and other consequences, such as the revocation of the organization's tax-exempt status.

  3. Public Scrutiny: Not-for-profit organizations that pay excessive compensation may also face public scrutiny and backlash. This can damage the organization's reputation and make it more difficult to attract donors and volunteers.

To avoid penalties for excessive compensation, not-for-profit organizations should ensure that they are paying reasonable compensation to their executives and employees. They should also have clear policies and procedures in place for determining compensation, and they should regularly review and adjust their compensation practices to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Who's getting laid off in America, by salary range

Usually in economic slowdowns, it’s low-income workers who get cut first, but the recent increase in unemployment insurance (UI) claims in the US has been more broad-based.

Looking at the Census’ Household Pulse Survey from March 29 to April 10 and comparing it to a week around the same time in 2022, the number of UI claims by Americans making more than $200,000 moved up by some 500%. During roughly the same period last year, 18,100 Americans at this salary level had applied for initial UI. Now that number has climbed to 113,800. READ MORE

Executive pay: balancing sustainability with profitability

As executive compensation soars back to pre-COVID-19 levels, and the gulf in pay between chief executives and employees expands, business leaders are under increasing pressure to design financial incentives in ways that reflect companies’ broader societal responsibilities while also creating long-term value for investors and other stakeholders. 

All too often, compensation plans have tended to encourage executives to pursue short-term profit maximization, often at the expense of environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations. That is now changing: the proportion of S&P 500 companies embedding ESG goals into their executive bonus plans rose from 57% in 2021 to 70% last year, according to consultants SemlerBrossy.  READ MORE

Why ESG Ratings Have No Place in Executive Compensation

The ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investment framework is a much livelier topic than it really ought to be. It ought to be boring.

Institutional investors, who know an ill wind when they feel one, are clearly concerned that climate change and lax corporate governance will imperil the value of their holdings. The prospect of stranded assets and Enron-level scandal can have that effect. READ MORE

Moderna’s billionaire CEO reaped nearly $400 million last year. He also got a raise.

Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, had a good year in 2022, exercising stock options that netted him nearly $393 million. The company decided his pay wasn’t good enough.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech, known for its lifesaving coronavirus vaccine, raised his salary last year by 50 percent to $1.5 million and increased his target cash bonus, according to a March securities filing. Bancel, 50, says he is donating the proceeds of stock sales to charity. He owns stock worth at least $2.8 billion and, as of the end of last year, had additional stock-based compensation valued at $1.7 billion. READ MORE

New York minimum wage could hit $16 under Hochul deal, up to $17 in NYC

A deal to raise minimum wages in New York would keep the state near the top of the list of places with the highest base pay for low-paid workers, but the raise amount is disappointing some labor activists who had hoped for a bigger bump.

The minimum hourly wage would rise to $17 in New York City and some of its suburbs and $16 in the rest of the state by 2026 under an agreement between Gov. Kathy Hochul and legislative leaders. That's an increase from the current rate of $15 in the city and $14.20 upstate. READ MORE

CEO pay at large-cap companies grows 3.1 percent despite turbulent year

Pay increases for CEOs at large-cap companies grew at a slower rate of 3.1 percent between the 2022 and 2023 proxy filing periods, compared with growth of 13.2 percent the previous year, according to ISS Corporate Solutions.

The solutions provider, which examined 337 large-cap company proxy statements between October 1, 2022 and April 18, 2023, finds median pay for CEOs at S&P 500 companies stood at $14.3 mn over the period. READ MORE

In Lieu of Living Wage Boss Agrees to Let Employees Come in Baked as Fuck

Employees at a local insurance office were granted permission to arrive to work baked out of their goddamn gourds and reeking of that good shit in lieu of a raise in pay, sources ignoring the profit reports confirmed.

“We raked in stellar profits six quarters in a row. But, you know, with the economy the way it is we don’t think pay raises are in the company’s best ineterest, we have to make sure things stay liquid,” said Operations Manager Jamie Sopa. “And we’ve made several concessions for the sake of our employees. They’re allowed to park in the management spots, they can wear sneakers to the office, and if they want to get blazed while listening to Sleep in the parking lot before their shift, then we’ll happily ignore that they smell like a Phish concert and keep telling stories that go nowhere.” READ MORE

How pay transparency can help close wage gaps in the workplace

Pay transparency – corporate disclosure of existing employees’ pay, along with the inclusion of wage and salary data in publicly advertised job postings – can help meaningfully reduce enduring wage gaps, especially along racial and gender lines. Enacting salary disclosure laws can be an effective tool for policy-makers keen on reducing inequality. But inconsistent global adoption of pay transparency practices threatens to keep pay inequality deeply entrenched in the global workplace. READ MORE

The 10 highest-paying internships of 2023

Online payment processor Stripe will compensate interns the most this year, with an average monthly internship salary of over $9,000 per month, according to a report from jobs data site Glassdoor. Stripe took the top spot from online gaming platform Roblox, which had the highest-paying internship in 2022.

The data, released Tuesday, aggregated salary reports from current and former U.S.-based interns between March 1, 2022 and Feb. 28, 2023 to find the 25 highest intern payers. Only companies that had 30 or more interns report their salaries on Glassdoor were considered. READ MORE

‘They never check anyway’: Worker says to lie in job interviews and bump up salary by 10K to get more money

An unfortunately common job interview question is, “What is your current salary?”

This puts applicants in an awkward position. If they’re seeking a new job, chances are that they’re not too happy with their current salary and don’t want to use it as a baseline. Furthermore, they could be being underpaid in their current position and hope that a new role will pay them a wage more in line with market rates. READ MORE

This 33-year-old went from a $60,000 salary to $140,000 in just 5 years—her best negotiation advice

As a software engineer, I was always confident in situations that required technical skills and problem-solving. But early on, one of the things I struggled with was negotiating raises.

During annual reviews, I didn’t know how to explain why I deserved more money, even when I did excellent work. Instead of feeling in charge of my earning potential, I felt like I was at the mercy of what companies were offering me. READ MORE

Financial industry CEOs earn more as shareholder returns fall

CEOs of financial services companies saw their compensation rise last year by nearly as much as the shareholder returns of their companies fell.

That’s according to an analysis this week by ISS Corporate Solutions, which examined the pay reported for chief executive officers on proxy filings between Oct. 1, 2022, and April 18 for 337 S&P 500 companies in all industry sectors. Across all of those companies and industries, median CEO pay rose 3.1% last year, down from the 13.2% increase in 2021.

Among financial services companies, the median growth in CEO compensation was 12.9%, according to ICS. During the year, the median total shareholder return at those companies went down by 16.2%. READ MORE

The Importance of Data Retention as It Relates to Pay Data Reporting

A rise in the number of pay disclosure laws around the country is exposing employers to increasing incidences of bias suits, according to Bloomberg Law. As employee salaries become more visible, employees who feel they’re not being paid fairly are more likely to file pay discrimination lawsuits, which leads to increasing pay data reporting requirements for employers.

While a desire for fair pay is obviously simply the “right thing to do,” requirements related to fair pay can be onerous for employers. READ MORE

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.