Newsletters, White Papers and Suggested Reading
Newsletter: Our Winter 2009 newsletter is out and available for download on our website here. This quarter we've dedicated the newsletter primarily to stock option repricings, a topic that has come charging back into the compensation world after a near decade hiatus.
White Papers: We've also recently published a white paper, "The Trouble With Options", that discusses the fundamental disconnect stock options create between executive behavior and shareholder value creation. World@Work subscribers can read an abstract on the World@Work website here. Alternatively, the full paper is available here on our website.
Suggested Reading:
James Surowiecki wrote an interesting article for the New Yorker that discusses, among other things, 'sticky wages', 'talent hoarding', and the productivity of the labor force.
Meanwhile, while the average hourly wage of employees increased by about 3% last year, Merrill Lynch, a company that shed nearly 80% of its shareholder's value, managed to find a way to pay $209 million to ten of its highest paid employees. You can find details in the Wall Street Journal (subscription) or the New York Times.
And finally, the New York Times has an interactive chart that outlines the gaps that continue to exist between women and men in the same job across a number of occupations.
Managing Compensation Costs
We are fielding quite a few requests for ideas on how to effectively manage compensation costs in light of the rough economic conditions. Below we’ve listed a few ideas we feel have merit and, in some cases, are a more strategic approach than simply cutting jobs. Feel free to comment or provide alternatives you’ve seen work.
1. Freeze Merit Increase Budgets - This translates to no base salary increases for 2009. Most surveys indicate companies have already revised their 2009 merit increase budgets downward from 3.6% to 2 - 3%. Some companies are taking this step further and freezing salaries altogether.
Presidio Pay’s Thoughts - Freezing salary increases is only slightly less demoralizing than a layoff, particularly for high-performing employees. We would suggest companies continue to provide some base salary increase to the top performers in the organization. This reinforces the importance of a
Speaking & Teaching Events
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Recent Posts
- American Bar Association Annual Meeting
- The Changing Face of Executive Compensation in IPO Companies
- Issues & Alternatives For Underwater Stock Options
- Week of March 16th
- Newsletters, White Papers and Suggested Reading