Is it time for employers to stop requesting salary history from job candidates during the interview process? It’s certainly a topic of concern – and potential caution – for those engaged in the hiring process. Frequently asked questions during the recruiting and interviewing processes include, “What is your current salary?” and, “How much did you make in your previous job?” Questions like these aimed at determining an applicant’s past or current compensation may be on their w

During 2018, companies filed their first proxy statement containing the infamous CEO pay ratio disclosure, so what have we learned? The answer may be best summed up by Equilar’s Dan Marcec, who said that the disclosures are “not telling us any more about income inequality that we didn’t already know.” Given that proponents of the pay ratio disclosure intended for it to shine a light on CEO pay practices and possibly lead to executive compensation reform, the rule may have mis

Salary increases over the past five years have been steady at roughly 3% per year, even as inflation has varied considerably over the same time period. Although companies have raised merit budgets compared to the recession years of 2009 – 2011, pay changes have not recovered to pre-recession levels. Prior to the recession, salary budget increases ranged from 3.8% to 4.6% during 1999 – 2008 (World at Work Annual Salary Budget Surveys). Are there reasons to believe that 2019 ma

In a job market where there are currently more job openings than job seekers, it is increasingly important for organizations to make efficient compensation decisions. This means not paying your workforce too much, but also not paying uncompetitive wages that cause key employees to look elsewhere. Since labor is generally a company’s largest expense, higher-than-necessary wages could affect company profitability or result in higher prices for customers. In fact, labor typical

Perhaps we are about to see an uptick in pay increases across the labor market.  The Department of Labor reported last week that the number of open positions exceeded the number of job seekers for the first time since such record keeping began in 2000.   U.S. job openings rose to an adjusted 6.7 million, while 6.3 million Americans were unemployed for the month.  The data is the latest sign that the U.S. is facing a historically tight labor market.While the labor market has t