One of the provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 enables enables plan sponsors to offer investment advice to employees without exposing themselves to liability for the outcome of that advice. While the Department of Labor has forthcoming regulations that will further clarify a plan sponsor's responsibilities, William Arnone and Lynn Finkelstein, both Employee Financial Services Practice Leaders with Ernst & Young, say you should be thinking about whether offering such advice is the right decision for your organization.
The results of the Survey of Exempt Compensation are in--and the slow growth in wages for exempt employees continues in 2007. Employers surveyed nationwide reported increases in exempt salaries for all of the 44 benchmark exempt positions surveyed. Salary increases for benchmarked jobs ranged
from a high of 4.66% to a low of 1.37%, with an average increase of 3%.
Nonexempt employees realized very little growth in their hourly wages over the
last year, according to Business & Legal Reports' 2007 Survey of Nonexempt
Compensation.
The results of BLR's 2008 Pay Budget Survey indicate that employers are hesitant to make any significant pay budget increases in the coming year, with projected average merit and general increases remaining below 4%. Survey results showed that the average planned merit increase is 3.48%, and the average general pay budget increase is 3.38%.
Nonexempt employees are less likely to see the benefits of the improving
economy this year, according to BLR's 2006 Survey of Nonexempt Compensation. Growth in nonexempt wages will continue in 2006, but at a slower rate than exempt salaries.
The results of the 2006 Survey of Exempt Compensation are in??and the positive
effects of an improving economy continue for exempt employees in 2006. Employers surveyed nationwide reported increases in exempt salaries for 43 of the 44 benchmark exempt positions surveyed.
The results of BLR's 2007 Pay Budget Survey indicate that employers are still unwilling to cross the 4% margin for budgeted merit or general increases in the coming year. Survey results showed that the planned increases for both
merit and general raises are holding steady for exempt,
nonexempt, and nonunion plant employees.
Despite skyrocketing healthcare insurance costs, Pacific Service Credit Union (CU) continues to pay 100 percent of the medical, dental, and vision premiums for its full-time employees and their dependents, says Eleanor Leyva, vice president of human resources and administration.
When actuaries arrive at your door each year, armed with reams of files and the news about the amount your company needs to contribute to your defined benefit plan for the coming year, they really give it their best efforts. However, it?s an unusual year in which everything goes according to plan.
Determining whether an employee should be exempt or nonexempt from overtime pay is always fraught with danger, but properly classifying a computer professional can be especially difficult.
After 2 years of stagnant pay-increase budgets below 4%, the results of BLR's 2006 Pay Budget Survey indicate that employers are feeling somewhat more optimistic in their pay budgeting for the coming year.
A slowdown in exempt wage growth in 2005 may be one of the first indicators that the national economy is not recovering as rapidly as expected. According to Business & Legal Reports' 2005 Survey of Nonexempt Compensation, 28% of the positions surveyed reported at least a marginal decrease in hourly wages for 2005.
The reports of a slowly improving economy continue. According to BLR's 2005 Survey of Exempt Compensation, over 80% of all the exempt job titles surveyed reported at least a marginal pay increase for 2005. Increases ranged from .43% to an impressive 13.89%.
BLR's 2004 Survey of Nonexempt Compensation shows that national wage increases
were reported for 38 of the 45 jobs surveyed, while only seven positions suffered wage drops. Fourteen of the jobs surveyed
indicated wage increases of over 5%, while only one job reported a wage decrease of over 5%. More than 4,300 organizations
responded to this year?s survey, which was conducted in January and February of 2004.
Signs of economic recovery are all around us. According to BLR's 2004 Survey of Exempt Compensation, nationally, most exempt workers experienced an
increase in their salaries this year. This stands with many other positive
signs that the country is finally climbing out of the recession. More than 4,300 organizations responded to this year?s survey, which was conducted in January and February of 2004.
We keep hearing how the new
regulations to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will cost employees a bundle in time and implementation costs, but what does this really mean to you
in dollars and cents?
This White Paper takes you through the process of obtaining information about a particular job in order to establish a basis for accurately describing it and for determining its specifications and requirements.
Find out how to properly write a statement that describes the main objective of a job, its essential and nonessential functions, job qualifications, and other information on the job.
Performance evaluation systems come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and are identified by an equally wide variety of labels. This White Paper describes some common best practices in performance evaluations.
These days, lateral moves are more common than promotions in many companies, and job responsibilities are wider and more diverse than they used to be, so wider bands make business sense.
A sales compensation program should be linked directly to the company?s
marketing strategy to control outcomes critical to the company. As the marketing strategies of individual companies are unique, so are the best sales compensation programs.
Performance management within a competency framework is one approach that
can be used to steer employees toward desired behaviors, as well as to reward
them for their accomplishments.
An objective-based plan is a group incentive plan that targets certain goals
tied to the organization?s strategic business plan. The "group" can be any organizational level, from division, or department, down to the individual work team.
A classic gainsharing plan is a group incentive plan that encourages employ-ees
to improve productivity through more efficient use of labor, capital, materi-als, and energy and then shares the resultant savings between the company and
employees according to a formula.
Some companies are experimenting with a movement to pay for the person rather than the job. This encourages employees to take responsibility for their own careers, addresses the needs for talents and competencies within the company more strategically, and promotes lateral career moves that enable the company to put people where they are needed and to develop employees more comprehensively.
A total rewards framework is a different way of looking at how employers pay
their employees. It is now finding its way into the thinking of compensation and human resources professionals at a number of companies.
Stock options have been a popular way for many public companies to
tie executive performance to shareholder concern. An option is the right the
company grants to an employee to buy stock during a specified time in the
future at a specified price.
Profit-sharing plans provide a financial safeguard for funding by
ensuring that an overall business unit profit level is achieved before any payouts are made. And, they provide an opportunity to train employees on financial measures and the operational business factors that affect those measures.
Putting a portion of pay "at-risk" by shifting fixed pay to variable pay
increases the total pay potential a pay program affords. Difference in total
pay can be achieved by replacing a portion of fixed pay with variable pay.
Competitive advantage means taking advantage of the best all employees
have to offer. But how to drive the type of cultural changes that will give a
company a competitive advantage? One way to approach performance improvement
is with the support of an awards program for process improvement that
focuses employees on the right behaviors, or competencies, needed to take the
organization forward.
Many companies now have annual performance-based awards for company
executives. Generally, the higher the executive is in the organization, the
greater the percent of pay tied to performance goals.
