Fred Whittlesey Compensation Venture Group, SPC An update on this continuing theme. Disney will pay $38 million in back wages after feds allege wage and hour violations Wouldn’t it be better to have competent compensation professionals who have the “spine” to stand up to senior management and ensure compliance? It shouldn’t take a judge to know the right thing to do. Conscious … Read More
Are We Paying CEOs All Wrong?
Last week’s article in Bloomberg Business Week “We’re Paying CEOs All Wrong” extended my work in Behavioral Economics and Equity Compensation to executive pay and then upward to CEO pay. I am flattered that the first two paragraphs of the article discussed my ideas although I thought it unnecessary to highlight that I have done this for “more than three decades” … Read More
How much is turnover costing your company?
Fred Whittlesey Compensation Venture Group, SPC Since the 1980s there has been an empirically validated methodology for calculating employee turnover cost. The concept of human resource accounting, created by Eric Flamholtz, Professor at UCLA Anderson business school, includes detailed approaches for determining these costs. I had the honor, as an MBA student, of working with Dr. Flamholtz on … Read More
Microsoft battles decision on “joint employer” status
Back in March 2015 I blogged about Microsoft’s new policy of requiring its US suppliers to provide their employees with 15 days of paid time off. I took issue with this approach to changing compensation practices in the name of “corporate social responsibility” as I don’t agree that a company should be telling its suppliers how to compensate their employees. … Read More
Conscious Compensation® Principles: Not transaction-dependent or exit dependent
One of the sources of extremely high pay to CEOs and other executives has been the compensation resulting from a “change in control” – when the company is acquired by another company, and several layers of cash and equity compensation are paid out at the time of the transaction. These payments may result merely from the transaction occurring (a … Read More
Leading the List of Cool Executive Perks…
A story published by AP today, based on its direct investigations, tells the story of a water district executive in California who received a $1.4 million loan, in connection with his hiring, to purchase a home. Years later he left that employer, but has yet to repay the loan. And still has the home. And another one in Pebble Beach. … Read More
“…Perks are the first on the chopping block” – could my blog have been more prescient?
I’m just going to say “I told you so” and leave it at that. Silicon Valley Business Journal 10 May 2016 As Bay Area startups cut costs, perks are first on the chopping block This blog 04 May 2016 The Hot Tub Will Be The First To Go
The Hot Tub Will Be The First To Go
I’ve been advising clients and the startups that I mentor that the current wave of “cool stuff” being offered to employees and candidates in this booming employment environment is about to end. I’ve used “the hot tub will be the first to go” as the metaphor, and now comes data that while the hot tub and the ping-pong tables … Read More
The Gender Pay Gap Solution
01-April-2015 There has been a proliferation of stories in the media about the so-called “gender pay gap” – a label for the observation that a given sample of male workers receives more annual salary and wages than a given sample of female workers. This has gone beyond the business media and become a pop culture topic. Here’s a recap of … Read More
Whatever Happened to the CEO Pay Ratio?
I just returned from the Conscious Capitalism 2013 Conference. There was scant discussion of compensation other than occasional references to the CEO pay ratio. Then I spent a few hours catching up on email and links to the endless stream of online commentary on compensation and there it was. The CEO Pay Ratio.It’s amusing to me that almost 3 years … Read More
