Special Compensation Situations

Discussion Board Question:

Please read the articles in the “Reading and Resources” section above on executive compensation and take a position on whether U.S. senior executives are overpaid or not, and briefly present your case. Provide examples from the course or external sources to support your position.

• UNIT 7 – SPECIAL COMPENSATION SITUATIONS

  Compensation professionals and managers alike are confronted with special compensation issues and problems that arise. In Unit 7, we will focus on several special situations.Executive Compensation, due to the attention the news media has given it in recent years, deserves a special focus. Without a doubt, the difficulty U.S. labor unions – both in the public and private sectors – and their members have experienced over the last several decades is worthy of special mention.
  Objectives:

  • Recognize various special compensation situations
  • Expand upon the concepts pertaining to executive compensation
  • Detail effective negotiation strategies for working with unions

  Activities:

  • Read and review Unit 7 Readings and Activities
  • Actively participate in Unit 7 Discussion Forums
  • Submit your Research Paper # 3

• READINGS AND RESOURCES

  CourseSmart Textbook:Milkovich, George T., Newman, J. M., & Gerhart, B. (2014). Compensation (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

  • Chapter 14 – Compensation of Special Groups
  • Chapter 15 – Union Role in Wage and Salary Administration
  • Chapter 16 – International Pay Systems

  Articles & Websites:Labor Union Report. (2011, September). How unions kill jobs: The union tax.

  • This article highlights the costs of unionization to our country, our business and our jobs – from an obvious employer’s perspective.

  Eduardo Porter, E. (2012, July). Unions’ past may hold key to their future. The New York Times.

  • This New York Times article briefly describes the current state of unionization in the U.S. and speculates on its future.

  Garuth, D. L., & Handogten-Garuth, G. D. (2002, July). Fundamentals of international compensation. Winston J. Brill & Associates.

  • The authors of this article list and describe the various elements of compensation and benefits generally provided to U.S. citizens assigned to job positions internationally.

  Use the following resources to assist you with your response for Unit 7.1 DB: Executive Compensation.

  • Clifford, Steve (2017, June) ; How Companies Actually Decide What to Pay CEOs; The Atlantic Magazine
    • https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/…
    • How companies arrive at the “right” level of pay for CEOs.
  • Miller, S. (2013, July). Most CEO’s are not overpaid, study suggests. Society of Human Resources Management.
    • According to this article, U.S. CEOs earned total compensation of $360,000, including benefits, perks and equity gains in 2012, according to the new CEO and Senior Executive Compensation in Private Companies Report by Chief Executive Group.

  Videos:

  Watch VideoGetting Executive Pay RightDuration: (4:49) User: towerswatsonconsult – Added: 7/21/11YouTube URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFGSIiATl0	Watch VideoWhat do Executives Think About Compensation?Duration: (4:32) User: pwc – Added:8/21/12YouTube URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UhCJuBhf9c
  In this video Marc Ullman, leader of Towers Watson’s Executive Compensation practice in New York, discusses the key challenges companies face in designing effective executive pay programs and why the proper alignment between pay and performance is often anything but straightforward.	Tom Gosling from PWC summarizes the findings of our global study into how senior executives feel about the effectiveness of executive compensation.

  Supplemental Resources:Executive Paywatch

  • This AFL-CIO website provides a source for researching the compensation of senior executives and comparing their compensation to that of working people in the U.S.

  ABB. (2013). Executive Committee remuneration, governance and principles. ABB 2013 Annual Report, Remuneration Report.

  • This supplemental article is a section of the ABB 2013 Annual Report. It describes in some detail the philosophy and components of senior executives at the firm.