CEO pay is always under fire. Founder salaries? Not so much

Public company CEOs are richly compensated. The median 2022 pay package for CEOs in the S&P 500 was $14.5 million, down slightly from the previous year, but more than double the median comp for S&P 500 CEOs in 2012. (In the same period, the federal minimum wage has remained flat, while median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary workers in the U.S. grew roughly 36%.)

Founders, on the other hand, may not be paying themselves enough, says Waseem Daher, cofounder and CEO of Pilot, an accounting firm that serves startups and small businesses. READ MORE

Why Would a Board Approve Nine-Figure CEO Pay?

We recently published a paper on SSRN (“Mega Grants: Why Would A Board Approve Nine-Figure CEO Pay?”) that examines the practice of awarding “mega grants” to CEOs.

Mega grants are large, one-time equity awards with long vesting periods (up to 10 years) granted in lieu of or in addition to annual awards with the intended purpose of providing significant incentive to achieve long-term targets. Mega grants were popular in the late 1990s (having been awarded to the CEOs of Oracle, Walt Disney, IAC/Interactive, and others) but fell out of favor in response to shareholder criticism. A 2005 accounting change that required companies to record the fair value of equity awards in the financial statements further decreased the attractiveness of large-scale option awards. READ MORE

Corruption, Crime, and Compliance - How to Build a Compliance Compensation System

The DOJ is advocating for increased consequences for individuals who engage in misconduct or fail to exercise proper oversight, via the implementation of compliance compensation programs that include financial penalties. Companies need to develop incentives and penalties in a balanced manner to maintain ethical performance, while ensuring the potential for accountability. A crucial aspect of enforcing these policies is the execution of robust clawback provisions as part of the executive’s contract and bonus terms. These clawbacks can act as a deterrent for misconduct, and their enforceability largely depends on the clarity of their language, among other things. In this episode of Corruption, Crime and Compliance, Michael Volkov explores compliance compensation systems and their role in corporate governance in detail. READ MORE

Employers plan to raise pay next year as inflation and salary transparency lead to higher compensation expectations

The standard 3% annual pay raise will no longer cut it, largely due to inflationary pressures on everything from gas to household goods and higher employee wage expectations.

According to Payscale's Salary Budget Survey, employers are budgeting for an average 3.8% salary increase in 2024. Last year, employers expected the same increase for 2023, though actual pay increases were 4%. However, Payscale anticipates actual raises for next year will stay at 3.8% as inflation cools and the labor market loosens. In fact, 22% of surveyed employers plan to lower their salary budget increase next year, up from 9% last year. READ MORE

Salary increase projections for 2024: What the numbers say

After record-high pay raises in 2023, today’s tight talent market appears to be primed to continue driving employee compensation even higher next year—a reality that puts added pressure on HR and compensation professionals to get their salary budgets right.

Payscale—a provider of compensation data, software and services—reports that its eighth annual Salary Budget Survey found pay increases in 2024 are predicted to be 3.8% on average in the U.S., instead of the 3% that has been the standard for decades. And it projects higher increases in some states, industries and other countries. READ MORE

CVS ties customer experience to compensation

CVS Health is tying executive bonuses to meeting customer experience targets to ensure accountability for customer outcomes across the C-Suite.

Linking customer experience “to compensation gave us a seat at the table and made people start paying attention, like ‘Hey, if you don’t actually address this, you’re not going to get paid,’” said Srikant Narasimhan, vice president of enterprise customer experience at CVS Health, at a conference in Boston this week. READ MORE

Women who feel unhappy with their salaries are less likely than men to push for a pay rise

Women are still getting the short end of the stick at work when it comes to pay, but many still don't feel confident enough to ask for a pay rise, a new survey found. 

Ciphr, a HR systems company, surveyed 1,000 adults working full-time in the UK in June found that over a third of men had requested a pay rise from their employers, but only 26% of women felt confident doing the same. READ MORE

A salary under this amount is a dating dealbreaker for many Americans

Thinking about asking that special someone for a second date, moving in together with your partner or even proposing? Don’t make a big move without first being bold about your financial needs and goals.

In a survey by Bread Financial, 64% of coupled consumers said they were financially incompatible with their partners due to differing approaches to money. READ MORE

Wage and salary increases in the US slowed down

The U.S. Labor Department has released new data showing that wage and salary increases for workers in the United States have slowed in recent months. 

A report from the DOL on Fridayshowed that wage and salary growth slowed during the quarter from April to June. This is an indication that employers were feeling less pressure to increase pay for workers. READ MORE

Gen Z intern shocks recruiter with list of demands including working no more than 5 hours, a start-up culture and an above average salary

Everyone has a list of wishes for their next job—perhaps it’s a generous pay packet, a more senior title or unlimited vacation days. For Gen Z, it’s apparently working for less than five hours a day.

One recruiter was left so shocked after interviewing a young job seeker who said he was looking for work-life balance (which tips heavily on the side of life) that she wrote about her experience on Twitter. READ MORE

Inflation is ebbing and compensation is rising

A trove of economic data released Friday provides the latest evidence that price pressures are easing across the U.S. economy.

The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index rose 3 percent from June 2022 to June 2023, down from a 3.8 percent annual increase in May, the Commerce Department announced.  READ MORE

Do Your Performance Metrics Measure Up to Your Sales Incentive Plan?

Sales leaders must identify what incentives will drive good sellers on their team to be the best and what will consistently motivate them. 

Sales reps are motivated by a clear line of sight between their performance and pay. The key is to have both an ongoing analysis of their historical performance and a comprehensive personal sales forecast.  READ MORE

Wage growth is surpassing inflation for the first time in two years

Over the past few years, a lot of American workers have gotten raises, a welcome development for many after those initial coronavirus lockdowns.

At the same time, though, consumers have been dealing with record inflation that peaked around 9% last summer, something that has certainly cut into – and in some cases erased – those wage gains completely. READ MORE

The US economy's brief moment of slowing inequality might be on its way out

Inequality has been the story of the US economy for over a decade.

While the narrative that we're living in a time of heightened inequality persists, the last few years opened up a small window in which that story had a chance to reverse. This was thanks to pre-pandemic minimum wage legislation, coupled with higher raises for lower wage workers in the tumultuous years that followed. READ MORE

340,000 UPS drivers are about to strike over a pay scale that gives part-timers what the Teamsters call ‘poverty wages’

Without a deal in place, more than 300,000 Teamsters will stop working on Aug. 1. It would mark the delivery service’s first strike since 1997.

The Conversation asked Jason Miller, a supply chain scholar at Michigan State University, to explain how likely it is that this will happen and what to expect if it does. READ MORE

Final Clawback Rules

The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) adopted “Clawback Rules,” codified in Rule 10D-1 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The Clawback Rules require U.S. public companies to develop and adopt a recoupment policy facilitating the recovery (or “clawback”) of incentive-based compensation received by current or former executives. In accordance with Rule 10D-1 and to provide for such clawback requirements, the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) and the Nasdaq Stock Market (“Nasdaq”) each amended its relevant listing standards – the NYSE through Section 303A.14 of the NYSE Listed Company Manual and Nasdaq through Listing Rule 5608. READ MORE

How Effective Is Your Sales Compensation Plan?

If you have a sales organization, you most likely have a sales compensation plan. How confident are you that your current plan is effective at delivering the results you desire? If you are like many executives, you may be wondering what you can do to create a plan that drives sales growth and improved profitability. It is not uncommon for executives to be frustrated by the results obtained and wonder if the commission plan needs tweaking. Before you tweak your existing plan, take some time to consider the following information. READ MORE

C-Suite Salaries Are Now Subject to Cuts, as a Popular Pandemic Practice Persists

The pandemic-era pay cuts that swept across many C-suites are now a regular part of some companies’ road maps for tough times. 

Executives at technology companies such as Zoom Video Communications, Intel and Micron Technology have taken cuts to their base salary this year as their businesses trimmed spending and laid off workers. And as was the case during the pandemic, the cuts to base pay have gone beyond chief executives to include finance chiefs, operations leaders and corporate attorneys. READ MORE

Here’s the salary Americans say they need to be happy — it’s over $100,000 in 17 states

Money can’t literally buy happiness. But it can buy safety, security and experiences that make life more joyful and less stressful. 

Americans say it would take a lot of money — upwards of $230,000 a year — to feel secure, and even more — $483,000 — to feel rich, according to a recent Bankrate survey. But new data shows they may find happiness earning far less. READ MORE

Gender pay gap now the narrowest on record

America's working women were feared to suffer the worst in the pandemic recovery. The opposite, however, has proven to be the case, with women serving as historic drivers of a labor market that remains surprisingly strong.

Why it matters: The pay gap between full-time working women and male counterparts is now the narrowest on record. The dynamic has been long in the making — a reflection of discrimination's slow fade and other structural forces that have held women back on pay. READ MORE