Income inequality at Obama Foundation

The beleaguered Obama Foundation has an income inequality problem: While half of its employees earn six-figure salaries, led by CEO Valerie Jarrett at $771,000, dozens at the other end of the scale are fighting for union representation.

The workplace disparity comes to light just as Fox News Digital reported that the long-delayed Obama Presidential Center's price tag hit $1 billion — nearly triple the original estimate for the Chicago facility. The Obama Foundation, former President Barack Obama's private nonprofit, reported 172 employees receiving more than $100,000 in salary in its 2025 tax filing — roughly half its 342 reported employees. READ MORE

CEO and Executive Compensation Practices in the Russell 3000 and S&P 500: 2026

This report examines CEO and executive compensation disclosed by US public companies during the 2026 proxy season. Drawing on extensive data for the Russell 3000 and S&P 500, it covers CEO pay, compensation elements, representation of women among CEOs, named executive officers (NEOs), say-on-pay voting, incentive design, perquisites, and the regulatory outlook. The broader picture is an executive compensation landscape that is becoming more equity driven and more differentiated by company scale, with scrutiny increasingly concentrated around exceptional awards, above-target incentive outcomes, and arrangements such as executive security. READ MORE

Portland looks at hiking its CEO pay tax … and cutting taxes on small business

Portland City Council is considering raising a tax on corporations that pay outsized CEO salaries — and using some of the revenue to lower taxes on local small businesses.

The council’s Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole took public testimony Oct. 8 on the proposal put forward by District 3 Counselor Angelita Morillo and District 4 Councilor Mitch Green.  READ MORE

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon set for massive $100M windfall as execs split staggering $500M bonus pool

About 20 top bosses at Goldman Sachs are set to split a $500 million bonus pool — among the biggest payouts ever awarded by the Wall Street bank.

The largest slice of the windfall will go to CEO David Solomon, who alone is set to reap more than $100 million before tax, according to securities filings. The same source shows that his heir apparent, chief operating officer John Waldron, is set to pick up just north of $66 million. READ MORE

How Compensation Committees Can Keep Up With AI

The rise of AI is prompting companies to reconsider long-standing business assumptions. Compensation committees should be no exception, as traditional approaches to incentive design may no longer align with how value is created in an AI-enabled world.

Most incentive plans and pay structures assume a relatively stable view of work in which roles are defined, accountability is clear and value can be attributed to people. AI is typically presented as a technology upgrade centered on better tools and faster outputs. In practice, however, it is quietly eroding the foundations of traditional compensation design. READ MORE

Inflation is Stealing Your Starting Salary

Recently, newly appointed Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh announced that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by a quarter percentage point, from 3.75% to 4%. This comes after three consecutive cycles of Chairman Jerome Powell holding the interest rate flat. 

The Federal Reserve operates under a dual mandate to maximize employment and price stability. Put simply, the Fed's interest rate sets the cost of borrowing money. Generally speaking, hiking the interest rate supports price stability at the cost of slowing economic growth, and cutting interest rates supports economic growth at the cost of raising inflation. READ MORE

Service Prices Just Hit a 4-Year High While Wage Growth Hit a 5-Year Low

A retailer told the Institute for Supply Management that “Shipping containers from overseas doubled in cost, causing price increases”. The comment appeared in the services survey released on October 5, 2026.

The Institute for Supply Management said its services prices index rose to 74.0 from 72.6. That is the highest reading since July 2022.

A reading above 50 means more firms are paying higher prices than lower ones. That shows how widespread the increases are. READ MORE

US Supreme Court won’t hear company’s appeal over migrant’s wage claim

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up a real estate management company’s appeal of a state Supreme Court decision that found state laws governing wages and work hours apply to immigrants who are in the country illegally.

The high court declined to give certiorari to Marmic LLC’s appeal of the state court’s March decision, which found that federal law that bars employing individuals without legal permission to enter or work in the United States does not conflict with New Jersey’s Wage and Hour and Wage Payment laws.

As is its practice, the U.S. Supreme Court did not provide a reason for rejecting the appeal. READ MORE

Blue states set to trigger fresh minimum wage hikes with pay floors more than double federal rate

Workers across several Democratic-led states are set to ring in 2027 with another pay bump, widening an already sizable gap between state minimum wages and the federal floor of $7.25 an hour.

Washington, California and Connecticut will all raise minimum wages that already top $17 an hour beginning Jan. 1, while New Jersey and Michigan will also hike their wage floors — widening the gap with the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour. READ MORE

The jobs employers can’t fill and the suprising salaries they offer

After trying college, Otavius Jackson followed an Instagram ad his mother spotted — and found his calling in aviation maintenance. Now at the Aviation Institute of Maintenance and nearing graduation, he says his math skills make the field a natural fit. His story reflects a broader national trend: employers across construction, electrical work and aviation are struggling to find enough trained workers as retirements accelerate and major projects expand.

A McKinsey & Company report projects a shortage of roughly 60,000 aviation technicians by 2029. The construction sector faces similar pressure, with the National Association of Home Builders estimating a need for 2.2 million new workers over the next three years. Skilled trades jobs can pay $60,000 to over $90,000 annually, according to Technicians of America. READ MORE

Why the Best Job Offer Is About More Than Salary

A higher salary can make a new job attractive, but compensation alone does not always tell candidates whether an offer is truly better. According to a recent report from NPAworldwide, recruiters can play an important role in helping candidates evaluate the complete package while also helping employers understand why a competitive base salary may not be enough to secure the person they want to hire. READ MORE

AI goldrush — Silicon Valley techies have gone from $350K salaries to begging for jobs

Silicon Valley may be in the middle of an Artificial Intelligence gold rush but thousands of former senior programmers and tech workers aren’t feeling it.

Those workers — until recently, used to paychecks between $310-340,000 — say the rapid advances in AI have left living on savings and their spouses’ paychecks, despite having top companies on their résumés and PhDs.

“You find a lot of people who lack empathy for the tech worker, because they’re like, oh well, they got laid off but they got these huge severance packages,” ex-Google employee Basem Istanbouli told The Post.  READ MORE

Demi Moore Says She Didn’t View Striptease Salary as a ‘Fight’ Against Hollywood’s Gender Pay Gap: ‘I Earned It’

Demi Moore recently reflected on her history with Hollywood’s gender pay gap nearly three decades after being named the highest-paid actress.

During Step Up’s 2026 Inspiration Awards in Los Angeles, Moore looked back on her decision to demand compensation she believed matched her work. Speaking with moderator Danielle Robay, the 63-year-old pushed back on the idea that she was waging a battle, instead framing the moment as a question of fairness. READ MORE

Average US Salary Statistics 2026: Median Income by Age and State

The median American full-time worker earned $1,235 a week in the first quarter of 2026, which works out to about $64,220 over a full year. That single figure hides a wide spread once you separate the four different ways the federal government measures pay, and it sits well above the wage a worker in the exact middle of the distribution actually takes home. READ MORE

Median CEO pay hits $17.5 mn as say-on-pay support reaches 93.3 percent, research shows

Median CEO compensation among S&P 500 companies reached a record $17.5 mn in fiscal 2025, up from previous years, new research shows.

Meanwhile, median pay across the Russell 3000 excluding the S&P 500 remained broadly stable at approximately $5.5 mn, according to ISS-Corporate’s 2026 US Compensation Post-Season Review report. Since 2021, median CEO pay has increased 20 percent in the S&P 500 compared with 5 percent among the rest of the Russell 3000. READ MORE

Liberal stronghold set to adopt eye-popping minimum wage amid business exodus

Seattle is slated to increase its minimum wage to $22.14 an hour in 2027 as the broader metro area contends with a sharp drop in job openings and Seattle businesses face mounting cost pressures.

Beginning in 2025, all Seattle employers, including small businesses, were required to pay the same minimum wage, which is adjusted annually for inflation. Several Seattle restaurant owners who have since closed their businesses have cited rising labor costs among the financial pressures that contributed to their decisions. READ MORE

The Gap Between the Rich and the Very, Very Rich Is Getting Wider

The ultrawealthy aren’t just pulling away from average Americans. Buoyed by a stock-market boom that has added trillions of dollars to their net worth, the extremely rich are even pulling away from other rich Americans.

The top 0.1% wealthiest Americans have seen their total wealth more than double since the end of 2019, according to new data from the Federal Reserve. The year the pandemic started was when the ultrawealthy began to pull away from other rich groups, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Fed data. READ MORE