Category Archives: Executive Compensation

Do Texas Execs Get Paid for Unused Vacation Time? It Depends

A recent study revealed that 41 percent of American workers don’t plan to use all of their paid time off. Given the level of competitiveness in the C-suite, it stands to reason that an even higher percentage of executives leave a significant amount of vacation on the table each year. Not only is this a bad idea – taking time away from work can pay off exponentially in more refreshed, focused workers at every level of the company – but it also means that executives who leave their employers may be walking away from a portion of their compensation. Continue reading

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Former BBC Head’s Payout Adds to Network’s PR Woes

George Entwistle, the BBC’s former director general , resigned under fire recently over a two-pronged scandal involving the network’s handling of child abuse charges. The circumstances of the case are disturbing enough,but the BBC Trust, the broadcaster’s governing body, made it worse by giving Entwistle an overly generous payout when he left. That’s a blatant violation of Ahmad’s First Rule of Resigning Under Fire: Don’t let your severance package cause more troubles for you or your former employer.

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Non-Profit CEOs Deserve Competitive Pay Too

A recent survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy points out that, although CEO pay is essentially just keeping up with inflation, some of the highest earners routinely make more than $1 million. Nationally, the Chronicle reports, executive pay at the … Continue reading

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Executive Compensation Under the Microscope

It looks like compensation committees at J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup Inc. are keenly aware of the role that public perception and company performance plays in setting executive compensation, particularly in light of the financial industry’s recent poor performance (and … Continue reading

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Saving Face in the Face of a Demotion

The saga of the reported demotion of Ann Curry, the “Today” show anchor, causes me to consider how high-profile executives can save face and prosper after suffering a similar fate. Although Curry’s ordeal is being played out in the national … Continue reading

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Negotiating Executive Compensation in an ‘Occupy’ Era

To follow the news, it’s tempting to think that a good chunk of the country’s financial woes can be blamed on high executive compensation. The latest incarnation of that resentment is the Occupy movement, as well as the “say-on-pay” provisions … Continue reading

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Is Your Pension Going to Be What You Think It’s Going to Be?

American Airlines’ request to have the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp. bail out its $9 billion in unfunded pension obligations should have executives everywhere taking a hard look at their employer-funded retirement plans. Particularly for executives who work in troubled industries, … Continue reading

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What to do when your successful business unit is sold

Success is sometimes rewarded in strange ways, such as when a company sells off a highly profitable business unit in order to raise cash (as Nestle did when it bought Cadbury and as Barnes & Noble is considering doing with … Continue reading

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“Say on Pay” Hasn’t Hurt Exec Compensation–Yet

There’s clearly some nervousness among executives these days, given that shareholders now have a “say on pay.” But by most accounts, they don’t need to be all that nervous. “Say on pay” is a provision of Dodd-Frank that allows shareholders to cast an advisory … Continue reading

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Options Backdating Still a Problem

Executives looking to maximize their compensation have many ways to do so besides a bump in salary, including bonuses, stock, stock options, retirement plans, retirement insurance, golden parachutes, and other perks of the company-jet and season-ticket variety. There is great … Continue reading

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