Incentives remain one of the most powerful, and yet also one of the most misapplied, management tools out there. While research has shown that group incentives can deliver significant return on investment (CARS research showed a median plan ROI of 134%…
Wages, Pay, & Salary
Keep Your Rock Stars Without Busting the Budget
Here’s a thought bubble: Say you have a “rock star” employee, highly satisfied with his/her job, who came in young and hungry, growing into a superstar over several years with incremental raises, and one day gets woke to the fact they’re…
The Gender Pay Gap Is Also an Opportunity Gap
The current business climate has created a new focus, and even spurred new laws aimed at achieving equal pay, but not enough progress has been made. PayScale’s new research found that the gender pay gap still persists into 2018. Looking…
What You Need to Know About Massachusetts’ Updated Pay Equity Law
Back in 1945, Massachusetts became the first state in the country to pass an equal pay law. But despite its efforts, the gender pay gap unfortunately persisted. According to Mass.gov, women working full time in Massachusetts earn, on average, about…
California Court’s Worker Classification Ruling Has Broad Implications for Gig Workers
A three-part test announced Monday by the California Supreme Court has far-reaching implications for who in the state can be classified as an independent contractor. The 7-0 decision in a case brought by drivers working for a delivery company squarely…
Disclosures Show Median Pay at Public Companies Higher Than Thought
In the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2010 Congress enacted a law requiring public companies to identify the compensation of their median-paid employee, compare that to the CEO as a ratio, and disclose it each year. As noted by…
Your Merit Pay Program Has a Fatal Flaw
It’s likely that your pay-for-performance program has a fatal flaw built into it; an inadvertent side effect of the design that, if ignored by management will almost certainly guarantee failure. But no one wants to talk about it. Instead, what…
New Tip-Sharing Rules for Tipped Employees
On March 27, 2018, President Donald Trump signed into law Congress’s $1.3 trillion, 2,232-page omnibus budget bill, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018. Notably, on page 2,025, Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act by addressing rules affecting tipped employees and…
5 Reasons Why Working Too Many Hours Is a Bad Idea
24-year-old copywriter Mita Diran’s last Tweet, several hours before she lapsed into a coma and died. One thing most millennials figure out faster than workers of older generations is that work/life balance isn’t just important, it’s crucial. While exceptions like Miss…
With Workers Coming In From the Sidelines, Hiring Could Get a Little Easier
If there’s one thing you can count on in a conversation with talent acquisition leaders, it’s hearing how hard it is to hire people. Last week, at the spring ERE Recruiting Conference, anytime two people would get together, the talent…
3 Simple Steps to Avoid Fighting With Hiring Managers Over Pay
Even though they are our daily bread and butter, recruiting and hiring remain very inefficient and time consuming processes. Because they take so much of our time and involve so many people, just the idea of making improvements feels stressful….
Top Organizations Do Pay Differently From Everyone Else
In the latest “Compensation Best Practices Report,” which gathered responses from 7,100 respondents on their pay practices, PayScale – the company where I work – took a look at what really sets top performers apart. In this report, top-performing organizations were…
Why a Compensation Strategy Is a Must
How many of you reading this article have a piece of paper that you can lay your hands on, one with the title, “Compensation Strategy”? Do you know if such a document exists in your organization? The common response at…
What Pay Range Data Can and Can’t Tell You
Many pay surveys routinely collect and report salary range minimums, midpoints and maximums. This data can provide helpful context, but it is also at risk for being misapplied by practitioners who haven’t the training or experience to correctly interpret the…
Spot Awards Are Good, Until They’re Not
Greater use of spot rewards and similar forms of incidental bonuses is one of the major shifts in the compensation world today. From 2010 to 2016, a growing number of organizations have incorporated spot rewards into their compensation practices. A…
Doing Business In California? Be Sure You Comply With These New Employment Rules
Every year, the California legislature churns out new laws regulating employment in the Golden State and 2017 was no different. As Trump appointees at the Department of Labor, National Labor Relations Board and other agencies have begun to be confirmed,…
Half of All Workers Got No Raise This Year
Hiring tips, management help and the role that compensation plays in recruiting, from the Humetrics blog. Half of All Workers Got No Raise A new survey finds just over half of the respondents have not gotten a bump in salary over the past…
How to Prepare Managers to Talk About Pay
Of all the topics organizations need to talk about, you’d think they’d be most effective about communicating compensation. After all, although you hope that employees love their jobs, they work to earn money — to pay their mortgage, put gas…
Variable Pay Is Becoming More Common and More Frequent
A rich compensation mix encompasses much more than base pay alone, there are bonuses, incentives, benefits and much more to consider. Together, all these pay elements create a total rewards package for employees. However, variable pay can also be a…
Should You Offer Performance Pay for Your Gig Workers?
From Amazon’s Mechanical Turk to Fiverr, TaskRabbit, Upwork and Behance, gig platforms are everywhere. If you need something done, whether it’s a simple microtask or a complete overhaul of your marketing strategy, chances are there’s a gig worker on a platform somewhere that can do…