Adidas, Home Depot Sued in Test Cases on Job Ad Pay Transparency

A batch of proposed class actions filed in Washington state against major companies such as adidas AG, Home Depot Inc., and Marriott International Inc., will help employers gauge the litigation risk they face under a recent nationwide wave of pay transparency laws requiring salary ranges in job ads.

A handful of job applicants have sued companies in roughly 40 lawsuits alleging they failed to advertise the pay ranges and benefits information that Washington’s law began requiring Jan. 1. Each case could cover “potentially hundreds” of job applicants, according to the complaints. READ MORE

Pay hikes in 2024: What do employers have on the horizon?

After years of employers hiking salaries to keep talent in a tough labor market, a new study suggests across-the-board pay raises may not be in the cards at many organizations in 2024.

A report out this week from ResumeBuilder.com found that 18% of companies surveyed had not yet decided if they were going to give raises next year, and 8% won’t. While three-quarters plan to raise some salaries, at half of those companies, the raises will go to 50% or less of employees, according to a survey of 600 business leaders. READ MORE

Issues Facing Compensation Committees in 2024

The current economic environment and geopolitical unrest have created substantial uncertainty as companies prepare annual budgets and long-term forecasts for 2024 and beyond. At the same time, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s unprecedented release of new regulations and guidance has many companies scrambling to adopt new policies and comply with new disclosure requirements, and the onslaught of new rules does not appear to be abating anytime soon. Further, the number of proxy proposals this past year reached an all-time high as the SEC changed its rules, making it more difficult for companies to exclude such proposals. READ MORE

Here’s how rising pay transparency is causing an employer compensation information ‘arms race’

Rising pay transparency is causing a new kind of competition among employers — and it’s not necessarily for talent.

Instead, the shift in employers opting to share salaries on job listings has sparked an “arms race” for better starting pay and other benefits, Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told CNBC. And more employers are also including a range of non-cash benefits, perks and flexibility options in their job postings, according to a recent ZipRecruiter survey on pay transparency. READ MORE

Universal basic income is working

In the spring of 2022, Tydricka Lewis finally bought a car that started every time she asked it to and no longer left her stranded.

Her 2020 Nissan Rogue was essential to her new job as a peer-support specialist — helping people in mental-health crises required her to be able to get places reliably and fast. And it was essential to her new life outside prison, where she'd spent six years and four months for chasing fraudulent checks. READ MORE

Here’s how rising pay transparency is causing an employer compensation information ‘arms race’

Rising pay transparency is causing a new kind of competition among employers — and it’s not necessarily for talent.

Instead, the shift in employers opting to share salaries on job listings has sparked an “arms race” for better starting pay and other benefits, Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, told CNBC. And more employers are also including a range of non-cash benefits, perks and flexibility options in their job postings, according to a recent ZipRecruiter survey on pay transparency. READ MORE

These mistakes can sabotage your salary negotiations before they even start

With only two months left in 2023, many people have set their sights on getting a new job in the new year. The stress of finding and interviewing for a new job can be daunting, but there’s another element of the job search that can be equally challenging: negotiation. 

While negotiation can be scary, economists say that choosing not to do it leaves $1 million to $1.5 million in lifetime earnings on the table, and yet almost 20% of people have said they never negotiate. But it’s hard to know what to ask for. Is $20k more too much? Do I deserve extra days off? Will they renege my job offer if I ask for additional benefits?  READ MORE

Some companies lower salaries in job postings as pay transparency laws take effect, new report finds

State and local pay transparency laws enacted over the last few years have more employers disclosing salary ranges in job descriptions.

Yet, wages aren’t growing as expected. The growth of advertised wages for new hires is slowing, according to a report from job posting service ZipRecruiter — and in some cases, it’s reversing, with companies now posting lower pay ranges. READ MORE

Can a More Detailed LinkedIn Profile Boost Your Salary?

If you search online for an artist — a painter, photographer, or songwriter — there is a good chance you’ll find curated pages that showcase their work and tell their creator story. In creative fields, curating a digital portfolio is a calling card. But in other fields, it can be an afterthought, if it’s even thought of at all. Many in management do not think enough about how others discover them in the digital space — or, as we call it, their digital professional presence (DPP). READ MORE

The Compensation Committee’s Evolving Role in Human Capital Management

Many leaders delved into human capital management (HCM) when the economy was booming, just before the Great Resignation. Boards and compensation committees worked to understand talent issues and make their companies more attractive, inclusive, and engaging.

Now that the labor market is shifting, HCM has become even more critical as companies navigate new market-related challenges. The issues are not abating, just evolving, as stakeholders press for more attention on employees. While many companies worked diligently on the symptoms, they may have missed some underlying nuances driving core HCM issues. Compensation committees now have an opportunity, if not an imperative, to step up oversight and partner with management on these complex talent issues. READ MORE

What is deferred compensation?

It may be an understatement to say that employees want to get paid. But not everyone wants all of their pay right away. Some employees, especially those planning a retirement nest egg, would rather receive a portion of their income at a later date. This voluntary practice is commonly known as deferred compensation. READ MORE

Incentivizing Nonfinancial Metrics for Private Company Executives

Private companies are increasingly employing nonfinancial metrics in executive incentive plans, consistent with this trend among publicly traded companies.  

Private companies have far more governance leeway in their compensation plan design, which can be an advantage in some instances. The adoption has been slower than at public companies, with the most significant gains in annual bonus plans.  READ MORE

Fast Company’s CEO Fair Pay report: The 15 ‘most fairly’ paid finance CEOs

The masters of the universe at banking and finance companies are famous (or infamous) for their bulging compensation packages. But not every company in the sector boasts an exorbitantly remunerated executives: Some make only a small multiple more than their average employee.

As part of Fast Company’s CEO Fair Pay report, we’ve broken out the 15 CEOs of finance companies (as determined by SIC code) who make the closest in salary to their median employee. This list has a few of the CEOs who were featured on the 15 most fairly paid CEOs on the Russell 3000, though most make enough more than their median employee that they did not feature there. READ MORE

The Midwest is getting left behind as the rest of America sees big raises

The Midwest may have the lowest unemployment rate of any US region, but it's falling behind in raising wages for its workers.

Compared to the rest of the US, the Midwest is lagging in terms of real median wage growth, rising just 0.4% — or eight cents — from 2019 to 2022, new research from the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute shows. This is in contrast to the nation's 3.1% median wage growth during the same period. READ MORE

Analyzing the 2023 Proxy Season Say on Pay

With the 2023 proxy season now in the rearview mirror, WTW’s post-season say-on-pay (SoP) research within the Russell 3000 indicates a shift from the recent norm.  

Though shareholder support remained generally stable at 90% (compared to 89% in 2022 and 91% in 2021 at this time), results have improved in comparison to the past two years when it comes to failures and opposition. READ MORE