How much does an average UAW autoworker make?

When their existing labor contract expired at midnight Thursday, United Auto Workers began a strike against Detroit's Big Three automakers after being unable to navigate a major speed bump in what have been contentious negotiations: pay.

Ford, General Motors and Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) have spent weeks in talks with the UAW, mulling over details of a new labor contract that also has major implications for the U.S. automotive industry. UAW President Shawn Fain said members deserve hefty pay raises, emphasizing that the auto companies have brought in billions of dollars in profit and boosted CEO pay in recent years.

What is the average U.S. autoworker's wage? READ MORE

Automakers offered double-digit pay hikes but it was not enough

The United Auto Workers union is on strike against General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, the first time in its history that it has struck all three of America’s unionized automakers at the same time.

Workers on Friday walked out of three plants – one each from the Big Three automakers – in Missouri, Michigan and Ohio. Picketers were met with cheers from sign-waving union members. READ MORE

The 15 ‘most fairly’ paid CEOs

As more states require companies to share information on salary transparency, the question of pay equity between executives and workers is being taken up by unions, shareholder activists, and researchers who question why CEO pay has ballooned in recent years.

But the latest batch of executive compensation disclosures filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission also reveal some CEOs who (at first glance, at least) have more reasonable pay packages. Urban Outfitters CEO Richard Hayne, for example, takes a token $1 per year, but earns bonuses and other compensation. Still, his pay is fairly equitable compared with his peers on the Russell 3000 Index. Box’s Aaron Levie is also among the reasonably paid by this metric, and the average salary of a worker at his cloud-based content management company earns a nice salary as well. And then there’s Elon Musk who, in his role as CEO of Tesla, appears to be paid like a man of the people. READ MORE

Class of 2022 Average Starting Salaries Higher than Those of Previous Class

The average starting salary for recent graduates with bachelor’s degrees has risen noticeably, according to findings from a new National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) report.

The report, NACE’s Summer 2023 Salary Survey, found that the overall average salary for graduates increased from $55,911 for the Class of 2021 to $60,028 for the Class of 2022. READ MORE

A majority of job listings now include salary information, Indeed says

Thanks to an increase in state pay-transparency laws, slightly more than half of the listings on Indeed.com now include salary information, the highest share yet, per data from the jobs website out Thursday morning.

Why it matters: Job seekers appreciate salary transparency because it gives them an edge in negotiations over pay — employers are less fond, for the same reason. READ MORE

CEO pay is in focus as workers everywhere are demanding higher wages

This year, unions are calling out the pay disparity between workers and CEOs in negotiation after negotiation with management, as they demand more.

It's at the core of the United Auto Workers' messaging, as the union pushes for substantial pay raises for its roughly 150,000 members, who work at the Big Three automakers: Ford, General Motors and Stellantis (formerly Chrysler). READ MORE

How the pay gap between employees and CEOs impacts workers

Money can, in fact, buy happiness: A much publicized 2010 study found that employees needed to earn $75,000 per year to feel fulfilled, and that each additional dollar above that wouldn’t make a difference. But according to more recent research from Matthew Killingsworth, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, there is no such level.

After assessing 1.7 million data points about workers’ overall life satisfaction from more than 33,000 employed adults, Killingsworth “found that all forms of well-being continued to rise with income. I don’t see any sort of kink in the curve, an inflection point where money stops mattering. Instead, it keeps increasing.” Unfortunately, wages haven’t been increasing as significantly as workers might hope. In July 2013, American workers earned $20.14 per hour, on average. In July 2023, workers earned just $28.96 per hour, on average. READ MORE

Nike Investors Vote Against Pay Equity Shareholder Proposal

Investors of Nike Inc. voted against a proposal seeking a more detailed report on pay gaps across race and gender at the footwear and apparel company.

The proposal, filed by Arjuna Capital, sought a report on the median pay gaps across race and gender including reputational, competitive and operational risks related to recruiting and retaining diverse talent. Nike did not provide the percentage of investor support the proposal received in the meeting. READ MORE

What’s the living wage a family of four needs in every US state?

The amount of money a family of four needs to get by can vary drastically depending on where they live, according to new data analyzed by GoBankingRates.

In Hawaii, the living wage for a family of four is $182,900. In Mississippi it’s only $73,381.

The data used to calculate a “living wage” allowed 50% for necessities, which includes housing, 30% for luxury spending and 20% for savings. READ MORE

What’s the Entry-Level Salary in Every State?

When it comes to pursuing higher education or returning to college, one burning question lingers: What kind of paycheck can you expect with that hard-earned degree in hand?

To answer this, GOBankingRates delved into the data, leveraging the U.S. Census American Consumer Survey to uncover median earnings for associate, bachelor's and graduate degree holders in cities across the nation. READ MORE

Top Salaries For College Graduates

As students return to college campuses across the country, talk of whether a college degree is still “worth it” has returned, especially as the cost of tuition continues to rise. One metric for measuring success is the first-year salaries of graduates, and the numbers continue to be impressive.

According to the just-released National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Salary Survey for the Class of 2022, bachelor’s degree-level graduates received starting salaries that were, on average, 7.4% more than their peers from the Class of 2021, rising to $60,028 compared to $55,911 for Class of 2021 graduates. READ MORE

When It Comes to Compensation, More Equity Isn’t Always Better

Startups frequently compensate employees through a blend of cash and equity, such as stock options or restricted stock units, which may translate into ownership stakes. For prospective employees, assessing job offers with equity components can prove to be a complicated task. In fact, in a recent research study we found a clear and consistent pattern among participants evaluating offers that included equity compensation: They appeared to perceive that a higher number of shares translated into superior compensation. This led them to be more willing to sacrifice cash compensation when offered a larger quantity of shares, even when the underlying value remained the same. Call it the equity illusion. READ MORE

10 Elements for a Successful Sales Compensation Philosophy

A sales compensation philosophy is the foundation upon which specific compensation design decisions are based. As a statement of the sales compensation strategy for an organization, the compensation philosophy can provide the framework for a successful compensation design effort.  

There are 10 elements of a sales compensation philosophy that help define the key parameters of a program. READ MORE

California could increase minimum wage for fast food, health care workers under new proposals

Fast food and health care workers in California are slated to see major salary increases under a deal announced Monday between labor unions and the restaurant industry.

Under the new deal, restaurant chains with at least 60 national locations must pay their workers a minimum hourly wage of $20 as of April 2024, according to the Wall Street Journal. This would include most of the state's 500,000 fast food workers. READ MORE

Leaked Google Pay Data Unfolds An Ugly Truth

According to the leaked Google Pay data, the black staff at the company make $20k less than white employees, and also gender pay gap is still an issue.

An internal spreadsheet shared among Google employees provides detailed information on the salaries and bonuses of over 12,000 U.S. employees in various roles, including software engineers, business analysts, and salespeople. The data covers the year 2022 and was voluntarily submitted by employees. READ MORE

What to Say When Negotiating Salary in a Job Offer

You may not feel powerful before you've officially signed a job offer to accept a position. After all, you aren't even working at the company yet. But the fact is that you have the greatest negotiating power during that short window of time between being offered a job and formally agreeing to take it.

Think about it: The hiring manager has already tipped their hand by letting you know they want to bring you on board. The team has invested time and resources in the interview process, they have a consensus on hiring you, and they're eager to seal the deal and put you to work. This is the perfect time to talk about salary. READ MORE

Secrets Salaries And Talent Retention: Transparency Helps

In Italy the topic has gone by in relative silence, maybe because the effective application of the norm is still quite far away timewise and we shall only get round to it in due course. Or maybe because the EU directive 2023/970, which rules out keeping salaries secret, actually touches on a key aspect of the employer/employee relationship, a crucial interchange which leaves room for a wholly discretional exercise of power. The EU objective is sacrosanct and worthy of merit: to combat the gender pay gap, which still sees women greatly penalised at pay level, the legislators in Brussels have established that workers and their representatives are entitled to receive all available information on wage levels applied in the company, both individual and average. Obviously, companies will be obliged to reveal eventual differences in the salaries of men and women covering the same roles. And not only that: the EU norm foresees that no clauses must exist impeding an employee to make public his/her earnings or to ask for information on what other workers earn, and that salary level must be communicated in the job announcement or, at least, before the job interview. A norm which applies simple common sense? Well, of course. READ MORE

Just 1 in 4 college seniors plan to negotiate their first salary—It ‘should always be on the table,’ says career expert

The class of 2024 longs for both job and financial security — and those priorities may be at odds when they negotiate the pay for their first jobs out of college.

Some 3 in 4 college seniors graduating next year say they’re unsure whether they plan to negotiate their starting pay, that it will depend on the offer, or they’re outright not planning to have the discussion, according to Handshake’s latest survey of 1,148 students in the class of 2024. READ MORE