Financial Times (January 21)
“In a country where companies have resisted raising pay and the workforce has refrained from aggressive salary demands for most of the past three decades, Fast Retailing’s move is a watershed for the government and the Bank of Japan’s battle to lift the economy out of deflation.” Should the approach gain momentum, “the ramifications could be far-reaching,” potentially leading to “a virtuous cycle of rising wages, consumption and prices” that “would allow Japan to finally move away from the negative interest rates and ultra-loose monetary policies.”
Tags: BOJ, Consumption, Deflation, Demands, Economy, Fast Retailing, Interest rates, Japan, Prices, Raising pay, Rising wages, Salary, Ultra-loose, Virtuous cycle, Watershed, Workforce
Financial Times (February 28)
Norway’s $1.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, “is voting against Apple’s pay policies, including $99mn in salary and bonuses for chief executive Tim Cook, part of a growing shareholder backlash against remuneration at the tech giant.” The funds rationale includes the belief that “a substantial part of annual pay should be provided in shares that are locked in for five to 10 years.”
Tags: Apple, Backlash, Bonuses, Cook, Fund, Norway, Pay policies, Remuneration, Salary, Shareholder, Sovereign wealth, Tech, Voting
New York Times (July 14)
“The median compensation of chief executives at 200 of the nation’s biggest public companies came in at $15.1 million last year, a 16 percent jump from 2011…. The pay packages — including salary, bonus, benefits, stock and option grants — ranged from $96.2 million at Oracle to $11.1 million at General Motors.” Until the SEC determines rules for Dodd-Frank disclosure requirements, however, we won’t know just how excessive these packages are. Corporations should disclose pay gap information so investors, consumers, economists and others can monitor the ratio of C.E.O. pay to regular employee pay, which by some estimates now stands at between 200 and 300 to 1 in the U.S.“The median compensation of chief executives at 200 of the nation’s biggest public companies came in at $15.1 million last year, a 16 percent jump from 2011…. The pay packages — including salary, bonus, benefits, stock and option grants — ranged from $96.2 million at Oracle to $11.1 million at General Motors.” Until the SEC determines rules for Dodd-Frank disclosure requirements, however, we won’t know just how excessive these packages are. Corporations should disclose pay gap information so investors, consumers, economists and others can monitor the ratio of C.E.O. pay to regular employee pay, which by some estimates now stands at between 200 and 300 to 1 in the U.S.
Tags: Benefits, Bonus, Compensation, Disclosure, Dodd-Frank, Executive, General Motors, Options, Oracle, Pay gap, Requirements, Salary, SEC
New York Times (September 12)
“Teachers’ strikes, because they hurt children and their families, are never a good idea. The strike that has roiled the civic climate in Chicago — and left 350,000 children without classes — seems particularly senseless.” Chicago had offered the teachers, who make an average annual salary of $75,000, a 16% pay raise over a 4-year period.
