Publicly Traded Companies: Don’t Forget to Register Plan Interests in Deferred Compensation Plans

Publicly traded companies generally file registration statements on Form S-8 to register the offering of the company’s stock pursuant to the company’s equity incentive plans under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (Securities Act). This same filing requirement applies under certain circumstances to a company’s nonqualified deferred compensation plans. READ MORE

Christmas bonuses could be a casualty of inflation, survey finds

Christmas bonuses could be on the chopping block at small businesses around the U.S. this holiday season as persistent inflation may play the role of the Grinch, according to a new survey.

The November edition of the Freedom Economy Index, a joint project of PublicSquare and RedBalloon, surveyed small business owners and found that 42% of business owners who traditionally give Christmas bonuses to their employees said they can’t afford them this year.  READ MORE

“Computed Without Regard to Taxes Paid”: The Individual Tax Consequences of Compensation Clawbacks

Compensation clawbacks can raise difficult, and often adverse, tax issues for employees and other service providers. Specifically, for clawbacks that are effected on a gross (pretax) basis, questions arise as to how the clawback is treated for income tax purposes and what avenues an individual may have for recovering any taxes previously paid on the recouped amount. As we describe in this client alert, the answers to these questions are far from straightforward, often counterintuitive, and largely dependent on the facts and circumstances of the original payment and its clawback. As a result, an affected individual’s likelihood of being made whole for taxes previously paid on recouped compensation will often need to be critically evaluated by a personal tax advisor. READ MORE

Resolution Could Invalidate Rule on Prevailing Wage

A group of Republican lawmakers recently took steps to scrap the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL's) final rule updating the prevailing wages for construction workers on federal contracts. U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., introduced a resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act on Nov. 15. So far, 22 U.S. Representatives have signed on.

The prevailing wage is the minimum rate that an employer must pay to workers on federal construction projects in a particular location. We've gathered a group of articles on the topic from SHRM Online and other trusted sources. READ MORE

NYSE and Nasdaq set for December 1 deadline to enforce executive pay clawback rules

U.S. stock exchanges, including the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq, are on the cusp of enforcing new rules that will require listed companies to reclaim incentive-based compensation from executives in the event of financial restatements due to material noncompliance. This regulatory shift, driven by the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Rule 10D-1, mandates that by December 1, 2023, NYSE and Nasdaq-listed entities must have recovery policies in place. These policies are applicable to incentive pay awarded to executive officers over the past three fiscal years. READ MORE

Strengthening pay practices

2023 marked the first time in four years S&P 500-listed issuers awarded compensation packages based on a down market. In 2022, the S&P 500 index’s total return was -19.4% and companies generally responded as investors would expect, with average granted compensation for companies in the index decreasing to $15.7 million in 2022, down from $17.5 million in 2021.

Despite these tough market conditions, investors responded positively to more modest CEO payouts. 2023 marked the first proxy season in five years where support for advisory “say on pay” proposals at S&P 500 companies increased in comparison to the previous year. Proposals of this kind received 92.1% support on average in 2017, bottoming out at 87.7% average support in 2022. 2023, however, bucked the trend, with “say on pay” resolutions winning 88.9% average support, according to Diligent Market Intelligence’s (DMI) Voting module. READ MORE

Linking executive compensation to D&I metrics in the wake of SFFA: Action steps for public companies to consider

Anti-ESG sentiment has been on the rise – shareholder proposals questioning the wisdom of ESG initiatives, including those designed to foster diversity and inclusion (D&I), have more than doubled within the past three years. Additionally, some stakeholders are bringing litigation aiming to curtail corporate D&I initiatives, including shareholder derivative claims for breach of fiduciary duty, classic assertions of reverse discrimination, securities fraud claims, and claims that specific corporate policies violate state and federal anti-discrimination statutes. READ MORE

Show Me The Money! Trends in Executive Compensation

As the calendar inches closer to 2024, a pivotal concern looms large in the minds of most employees: cash bonuses.

However, for executives, especially those who work for private companies that may be involved in a potential sale or merger, their calculus is different. Rather than fixating solely on traditional year-end bonuses, executives are focused on creative and tax-efficient ways to maximize compensation, both now and at other inflection points throughout the year. READ MORE

3 questions to empower top talent through nonqualified deferred compensation plans

We know offering a robust retirement plan helps attract and retain in-demand executives, reduce turnover expenses, and boost the bottom line. But far from being table stakes, your retirement offering gives you an opportunity to differentiate yourself amongst the competition and attract top talent. As part of that package, you may consider including a nonqualified deferred compensation (NQDC) plan offering for your leadership staff. READ MORE

Jobs where salaries are rising the fastest

Wage growth is slowing after reaching a recent peak but, with increases still “solid”, this could add pressure on the Reserve Bank (RBA) to raise interest rates at least one more time.

Advertised salaries rose by 4.6 per cent over the year to October 2023, SEEK’s latest Advertised Salary Index found, slowing from the 4.8 per cent recorded in both September and August and below the peak of 5 per cent seen in December 2022. READ MORE

6 in 10 Americans say money can buy happiness—here’s how much it would cost

It’s no secret that having enough money in the bank can help keep your stress low and improve your overall happiness.

Studies have shown that higher incomes are correlated with higher levels of life satisfaction, and Americans themselves tend to agree — 6 in 10 say money can buy happiness, according to a recent survey from Empower, a financial services company. READ MORE

CEO Performance Pay Is One of Capitalism’s Great Myths

As an abstract value at least, equality is generally seen as a good thing in most liberal democratic societies. Outside certain fringes of the Right, in fact, it’s exceptionally rare to see people defend inequality as an end itself. This is why most arguments for the unequal distribution of wealth or power rhetorically adopt an egalitarian guise or try to make the case that inequality actually benefits the least well-off. Advocates of so-called trickle-down economics, for example, might in practice support economic policies that have greatly exacerbated the gap between rich and poor, but they nonetheless like to insist that there’s some wider populist benefit to those policies (the wealth, after all, is ultimately supposed to “trickle down”). READ MORE

Switching Industries May Mean Lower Pay For Executives. Here’s Why

There may be many solid reasons for top executives to quit their jobs and change industries: the challenge of putting well-honed leadership skills to use in a different context and learning new competencies. An entirely new network of people. The chance to be part of a high-profile sector or company.

Executives who value salary above all else, however, may want to think twice before they take the leap into a new industry. Here’s why. READ MORE