Average salary in the U.S. in 2024

Average salaries and wages in the United States have been increasing year after year, but the landscape looks different depending on a range of factors, from where you live to how old you are. 

If you’re wondering how your earnings compare to the rest of the U.S., as well as others in your state, we’ve crunched the official numbers to produce a comprehensive breakdown of average salaries in the country in 2024. We’ve split salary data by age, race, gender, occupation, state and educational background and analyzed the results to see who earns what in the U.S. READ MORE

Compensation Design Calls for Radical Simplification

The evolution of executive compensation has been influenced by several factors, including:

  • Market competition for executive talent

  • Increased size and complexity of companies

  • Legislative and regulatory changes

  • Investor and proxy advisory firm policies

  • Calls for including non-financial incentive metrics based on environmental, social and governance objectives.

Critics of executive pay have pushed through a number of initiatives designed to address perceived concerns with executive pay. READ MORE

California democrat wants to hike the federal minimum wage up to $50 an hour — says six-figure salaries ‘barely enough to get by.’

California lawmakers butted heads during a U.S. Senate debate over how much they would hike the federal minimum wage in response to the nation’s affordability crisis.

By far the most dramatic call during the Feb. 12 debate came from Rep. Barbara Lee, a democrat, who wants to see the federal minimum wage hiked up to $50 an hour.

That is almost seven times the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour and more than three times the California minimum wage of $16 per hour. READ MORE

Some Employees Say Quality of Life is Worth a 20% Pay Cut

More than half of the 16,000 respondents in a global survey said they would take a 20% pay cutOpen in a new tab in exchange for a better quality of life. 

Those numbers in a Ford Motor Co. surveyOpen in a new tab were higher among younger generations, with 57% of Gen Z employees and 55% of millennials globally saying they would take that cut. Similarly, in the United States, 56% of Gen Z respondents and 60% of millennials were willing to exchange pay for better quality of life.  READ MORE

How to Prepare for the New Independent Contractor Rule

On March 11, employers will need to start applying a new rule from the Department of Labor (DOL) when classifying workers as employees or independent contractors. The deadline is fast approaching, and as employers prepare to meet it, they may need to consider several factors — including those issued by other agencies.  

When working to comply with the new rules, there is an incentive to get it right from day one. Starting March 11, employers that misclassify independent contractors can be liable for back taxes from that date forward, said Matt Fuhrman, founder and CEO of Core Group Resources, a global staffing company.  READ MORE

3 Ways To Optimize Your Incentive Compensation Program

Variable compensation is the largest sales expense for most businesses, averaging roughly 40% of total sales costs. It’s also incredibly complex and, without the right optimization strategy, can end up detracting from profits instead of efficiently driving more revenue.

For most companies, offering an effective incentive compensation program without spending more than necessary is a delicate balancing act. We all want to motivate our go-to-market teams to hit revenue goals, but don’t want to prioritize bonuses over the bottom line. READ MORE

Savvy Hacks for a Successful Salary Negotiation

Earning a good income is one of the best ways to set yourself up for financial success. After all, the more money you make, the easier it will be to invest in a brokerage account, grow your bank account balance, and cover your spending without worrying about debt.

Unfortunately, many people don't take a crucial step necessary to earn the highest salary possible: negotiating a raise. One survey by Salary.com revealed just 37% of people always negotiate their pay when getting hired and revealed that only 44% of people have ever asked for a raise during their periodic performance reviews at work. READ MORE

Nintendo CEO once halved his salary to prevent layoffs, and it worked—why that’s so uncommon today

As sweeping rounds of layoffs rock the tech, media and finance industries in 2024, some video game fans are thinking about former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata.

Iwata ran the Kyoto, Japan-based video game company from 2002 until his death in 2015. In 2013, Nintendo released the Wii U console as a successor to the mega-popular Wii. It was a commercial failure, pushing the company into years of losses. READ MORE

For Gen Z, a job is just a job

At 25, Kimi Kaneshina isn't where she thought she would be in her career. After a year working as a product manager in Southern California, she was laid off in June. The job was great, but the experience of getting axed shifted her priorities. Now, on the job hunt, she isn't messing around.

Instead of worrying about company culture or whether the job sounds exciting, the first thing Kaneshina looks for when job searching is the salary. "Right now there's this whole salary-transparency movement. So a lot of the roles I apply to I know about the pay right off the bat," she said. Once satisfied with the pay range, Kaneshina digs into the company — are they doing work she has experience with? Then she checks whether the opening provides room for growth — how long until she could get a promotion? For her to apply, all three factors have to line up. READ MORE

How to tie ESG goals to executive compensation

The world is leaning toward sustainable businesses and organisations are responding by reviewing their operations to be considered responsible. There is room for all businesses to truly embrace the concept of ‘doing well by doing good’ and incorporating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles if they truly want to thrive, with a view to recognising various stakeholders and not only shareholders.

Under the social component of ESG, which delves into the impact an organisation has on people issues relating to employee training, compensation, diversity and inclusion, health and safety standards are of important consideration. For companies that need to drive sustainability in their businesses, executive compensation can be used as a tool to achieve this. READ MORE

Know your worth: Understanding owner compensation in business valuation

When a business is considering a sale in the near (or even more distant) future, an accurate business valuation is essential. 

Without effectively calculating and understanding the valuation of the business, you risk undervaluation of the company and massive loss of negotiation power. When considering a merger, acquisition, or outright sale of a business, it’s key to understand what owner compensation is, why it’s important to get an accurate calculation, and how that calculation will impact the overall business valuation. READ MORE

Updated California Pay Data Reporting Guidance Increases Focus on Remote Employee Reporting

On February 1, 2024, the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), the agency responsible for administering California’s pay data collection, issued updated guidance for the 2023 California pay data reports that are due May 8, 2024. The new guidance largely maintains the 2022 pay reporting process with a few updates. The 2023 reporting process will again include the labor contractor employee reports which were required for the first time during the 2022 reporting year. READ MORE

Amazon Staff Allege Retaliation in Pay Gap Discrimination Suit

Amazon.com Inc. allegedly retaliated against three female employees — including firing one and placing another on a performance plan — after they sued the company for discrimination, the plaintiffs said in new court papers.

In an amended complaint filed Friday, Caroline Wilmuth, Katherine Schomer and Erin Combs alleged Amazon has “continued to discriminate and retaliate against” them since the original lawsuit was filed in November. Wilmuth has been terminated, Schomer was put on a performance plan, and Combs has resigned. They all belonged to the company’s communications and public relations group and focused on research and corporate reputation issues. READ MORE

Entrepreneurs Need to Start Paying Themselves Correctly. Here’s How

Entrepreneurs and those who work with entrepreneurs know that most do not pay themselves the salary that they would have to pay someone else to do the same work.

The familiar trope of a founder who does not take a salary for the first three years is well known, and even respected as a sacrifice to get a new venture started. This may work well for entrepreneurs with a financial safety net, or those who can reasonably stay on a friend’s couch or otherwise avoid expenses for those years. It does not work for entrepreneurs in demanding financial situations at the outset. READ MORE

The salary negotiation trick that works ‘time and time again,’ according to an ex-Goldman Sachs recruiter

It’s never been easier to see how much a job will pay before you go into an interview.

More than a dozen states, cities, counties and Washington, D.C. have passed pay disclosure laws, where employers of a certain size are required to list the salary range of an open job. And more than 1 in 4 workers in the U.S. now lives in a place where they’re entitled to see pay ranges on job ads.

But once you have that information, how can you actually leverage pay ranges to negotiate a job offer? READ MORE

Is There a New Focus for Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation Plans?

An industry-leading benchmark study of non-qualified deferred compensation (NQDC) plans finds that, while recruitment and retention continue to be the top goal for offering NQDC plans, other reasons for doing so are rising quickly in the ranks.

Though these plans are still primarily used to differentiate the compensation package for top talent, plan sponsors are showing an increased focus on education and retirement readiness, according to the Plan Sponsor Council of America’s (PSCA) 2023 NQDC Plan Survey.  READ MORE