UK's top shareholders to propose executive pay shake-up

Some of the UK's largest shareholders and senior directors at FTSE firms will this week demand a radical re-think in the way chief executives and top company earners are paid.

In a report to be published on Tuesday, leading UK corporate figures including the CEO of Legal and General, Nigel Wilson, and the chair of the Investment Association, Helena Morrissey, are expected to argue the current method of pay-setting is flawed, and propose overhauling the dominance of the long-term incentive plans (LTIPs) in determining top pay packets and bonuses.

The report comes after another AGM season of high-profile rebellions at what shareholders deemed excessive levels of pay in company boardrooms. It is also particularly timely given prime minister Theresa May's promise to reform corporate governance. In her short time in office she has already signalled plans to force companies to publish pay ratios, put employee representatives in the boardroom and pay closer scrutiny to foreign takeovers.

CITY A.M., Jake Cordell, Sunday 24 July 2016 6:48pm

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Pay Gap Widens Between Finance Execs, Rank and File

The gap between the pay of finance executives and rank-and-file workers widened once again in 2015, according to the annual compensation survey from Grant Thornton and the Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF).

Among 363 respondents with titles including CFO, corporate controller, vice president of finance, director of finance/accounting, and chief accounting officer, the average base salary was up 4.0% from 2014.

Various sources had estimated that the average salary bump for all workers last year would be 3.0% to 3.1%. “If I were a finance executive and got a 4% raise, I’d probably be happy about it, comparing it to what the overall labor market is doing,” says Tom Thompson, FERF’s research director.

By David McCann June 24, 2016 | CFO.com | US

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Pay for Performance Takes a Balanced Approach

Companies primarily use equity to retain and incentive executives, as well as align their visions with longer-term strategic goals and shareholder return. A number of factors have influenced the way companies grant equity to their executives, particularly the emphasis on pay for performance in the wake of the Dodd-Frank Act and implementation of Say on Pay. As a result, about 80% of S&P 500 companies grant performance-based equity to their CEOs, according to Equilar’s  2016 CEO Pay Trends report.

For more information on Equilar’s research and data analysis, please contact Dan Marcec, Director of Content & Marketing Communications at dmarcec@equilar.com. Felicia Wong, Equilar Project Manager, authored this post. June 20, 2016

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HR Basics: How To Cope When You Have A Compensation Department Of One

Over the last few years, we have seen a rise in attention to the all too common, “HR Department of One.”

These Jacks-and-Jills-of-all-trades, (and master of many), must be the policy maker, recruiter, trainer, confidant and much more for many companies. Often, we talk about “compensation departments and compensation professionals” as if every company has one or both.

But, what if, as is often the case, a company has NO compensation professional on staff? Or, what if the company has a great compensation analyst with little or no training in executive compensation, sales compensation or some other important specialty?

By Dan WalterJuly 28, 2015TLNT

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