12 Secrets to Keeping Employees Happy Without a Raise

Happy, engaged employees tend to be more productive and creative – and less likely to quit. While businesses should always strive to provide fair and competitive compensation, employee happiness isn’t just about money. Employees genuinely appreciate the opportunity to make a difference and be recognized for their contributions. 

Business owners and managers interested in achieving better employee retention rates can enact policies, offer perks and foster a company culture that boosts employee well-being and improves productivity. When employees can achieve a positive work-life balance and pursue a meaningful career path, everyone wins.  READ MORE

DoorDash says it will give drivers the option to earn a minimum hourly wage

DoorDash said it is changing the way it compensates its food delivery workers by giving them the option of earning a minimum hourly wage, rather than be paid by delivery. 

The change comes amid criticisms of gig-economy services like DoorDash that their workers may not even earn the minimum wage due to the way the companies structure their pay, which are typically based on per-service fees rather than hourly rates.  READ MORE

How To Set Your Global Compensation Strategy

Labor market pressures and the importance of staff retention mean that setting compensation effectively is more important than ever. In the Mercer Global Talent Trends 2022-2023 report, improving strategic workforce planning and reconsidering compensation setting were ranked the second and fourth overall priorities for HR leaders. With complications arising from remote work (allowances, expense reimbursements), having a cohesive compensation policy can be difficult enough in a regular company, but when you run a global company, there are extra challenges. READ MORE

‘Loud Quitting’ Is The Next Step From ‘Quiet Quitting,’ ‘Bare Minimum Mondays’ And ‘Acting Your Wage’

“Quiet quitting,” “Bare Minimum Mondays” and “acting your wage” were the slogans workers lived by during the Great Resignation. There were sufficient jobs available to pick and choose opportunities. Knowing they were in the driver's seat, employees could push back on bosses by doing only the basic amount of work required with little effort or enthusiasm. READ MORE

DOL Wage Rule For Immigrants And H-1B Visa Holders Could Be History

The Biden administration may shelve a Department of Labor rule that would have changed how the U.S. government sets prevailing wages for H-1B professionals and employment-based green card applicants. Employers are likely to welcome the move since the Trump administration had attempted to use the wage rule to price out of the labor market many foreign-born scientists and engineers. READ MORE

The Key to Salary Happiness

The key to pay satisfaction is a bigger salary, right? Not exactly. 

A majority of workers feel they’re fairly paid, but at the top of the list are independent workers across all industries, according to a recent survey of 2,500 American workers. The findings suggest that while earning what you think you’re worth is important, so is having some power over when and how much you work for the money.  READ MORE

Former Hertz Chief Beats Executive Compensation Clawback Lawsuit

Former Hertz Corp. chief executive Mark Frissora defeated the company’s lawsuit seeking to claw back his incentive compensation following his 2014 resignation in connection with an accounting scandal.

Hertz accused Frissora of violating the company’s clawback policies on incentive compensation and its standards of business conduct. But none of these policies are binding, standalone contracts that the company can enforce through a breach-of-contract action, Judge Evelyn Padin of the US District Court for the District of New Jersey said Monday. READ MORE

Executive Compensation and Clawbacks

Clawback compensation has been a longstanding tool for both public and private companies to recoup excesses paid to employees after the occurrence of certain untoward events. For example, it is not uncommon to find clawback clauses in separation agreements of public and private companies that operate to take back severance if the former employee breaches nondisclosure, non-solicitation, or non-compete agreements. Various executive compensation plans can likewise incorporate clawback provisions entered contractually by private companies. READ MORE

12 US Cities with High Salaries and Low Living Costs

As an avid researcher and data enthusiast, I recently embarked on a fascinating journey to uncover the cities in the U.S. where your dollar stretches the furthest.

My curiosity led me to pore over the United States Census Bureau’s 2020 American Community Survey, where I meticulously analyzed and ranked 100 cities. The criteria? They had to boast both a median household income and a mean household income above the national average. READ MORE

3 compensation issues topping HR’s priority list

HR leaders are increasingly facing sleepless nights over rapid changes in the world of compensation—as pay transparency laws sweep the country, illuminating pay equity issues and their own need to develop data-crunching skills and savvy.

These three issues—pay transparency, pay equity and data analytics skills—were cited as top concerns among HR leaders at the WorldatWork conference last week in San Diego. READ MORE

Fourth Circuit affirms Tax Court’s denial of reasonable compensation deduction

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed the Tax Court’s application of the multifactor test in its denial of bonus deductions for a closely held company’s CEO. In the case, the Tax Court held that a portion of compensation paid by a C corporation to its CEO and sole shareholder was unreasonable compensation under Section 162(a)(1).

 The reasonable compensation issue is critical for C corporations for determining whether payments are deductible as compensation and incur only one layer of tax as compensation at the individual level, or should be considered distributions that are not deductible against corporate tax and are taxed as dividends again at the individual level. READ MORE

What are some considerations for companies as ESG continues to find its way into incentive compensation plans?

“An incentive compensation program should drive behavior, engagement and results that a company wants its employees, customers and investors to know are important to it. Incorporate ESG incrementally and with that broader goal in mind. Set targets that are meaningful to the core of the business and make sense in the industry, that can be communicated clearly, and that are measurable. Then support those targets with robust data collection processes and reporting frameworks to ensure integrity and credibility and to facilitate clear and effective reporting out to key stakeholders.” READ MORE

Voters Across Party Lines Support Clawing Back Compensation from Failed Bank Executives

This March, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed after gross risk management — making it the largest bank to fail since the Great Recession of 2008. The failure resulted in growing economic instability and prompted another major bank, Signature Bank, to fail as well. 

Silicon Valley Bank failed because of executives’ mismanagement of interest rate risk. However, due to weaknesses in our current federal law, SVB’s executives were able to get and keep their bonuses. Greg Becker, SVB’s CEO, received $9.9 million in total compensation in 2022 with a $1.5 million cash bonus. He also sold nearly $30 million in stock, including $3.6 million days before the bank’s failure. READ MORE

Dueling Bipartisan Proposals to Seize Pay From Failed Bank Executives

Today, the Senate Banking Committee meets for a relatively rare event: a legislative markup. It’s actually the first legislative markup under committee chair Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who took over the gavel in 2021. (There have been several dozen nomination markups, but nothing for legislation.)

Senate committees in general reserve markups for legislation that can pass, and the Recovering Executive Compensation Obtained from Unaccountable Practices (RECOUP) Act, a joint measure from Brown and the committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), is that kind of bill. It seeks to hold executives who bankrupt their companies more accountable, empowering the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to claw back compensation, remove executives from their positions and the industry at large, and impose civil penalties. The legislation follows the collapse this spring of Silicon Valley Bank and other large regionals that failed to manage interest-rate risk. READ MORE

Senate bill on bank exec pay clawbacks faces first test

The Senate Banking Committee is set to vote Wednesday morning on a bipartisan bill that would allow the FDIC to claw back some compensation from senior executives at failed banks.

Why it matters: The bill has the backing of two key senators on both sides of the aisle and looks to be lawmakers' main response to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, which set off a mini-banking crisis this spring. READ MORE

A Job With a Fair Salary? What Pay Transparency Laws Are Revealing.

Last December, Yun Yati Naing began searching for the job she would begin after graduating from Baruch College in New York City. It was one month after a law passed by the city went into effect requiring employers with four or more employees to post salary ranges on all new job advertisements.

“All my friends were talking about it,” Ms. Naing said. “It really made a difference going into the work force as a fresh graduate. We had no idea what the wages of these entry-level jobs were.” READ MORE