Compensation & Benefits

American firms spent much of last year showering their top talent with money to stop them from leaving. In the process, they have sharply widened the pay gap between managers and workers.

Interesting and challenging work is what drives most managers to go the extra mile, not performance-related pay, cash bonuses or a stake in the business.

If you're looking for a big piece of cheese no matter the quality of your performance, here's a hot tip: become a CEO.

Next to wanting respect from their bosses, it seems most employees want to earn a decent wag and too many don't think they are.

The global financial pinch means that middle managers and professionals are being forced to cut back on spending and even take second jobs to make ends meet.

A growing number of U.S workers are now working from home or telecommuting, but employers are still way too laid back about the possible security risks this entails.

Open and honest communication is far more valuable than cash when it comes to keeping staff happy.

Job-hopping may boost your salary in the short term, but too much career chopping and changing can eventually harm a worker's financial prospects.

Corporate America may be trying to get its house in order over executive pay, but the damage from successive "fat cat" scandals has already been done.

In a move that would make most American or HR personnel fall out of their chairs laughing, an unnamed Japanese cosmetics company is actually giving employees one to three work days off for "heartbreak leave".

As Indian workers are toasting record pay rises, their counterparts in America are bracing themselves for a wave of job cuts.

More evidence has emerged to suggest that the highest performing companies are generally led by the best paid and most financially motivated CEOs.

Bibles, visits to strip clubs, haircuts, even betting slips – there is no end to what employees will try to claim as genuine work expenses.

A single large U.S. employer dropping healthcare benefits for its employees could create a domino effect that brings the entire system to its knees.

It's often assumed that the attitude towards CEO pay in most U.S. boardrooms is "the more, the merrier". But in fact one in three directors think CEO pay is out of control.

Employees in booming Asian economies are demanding more money and better jobs - and they're happy to move and move again if they don't get what they want.

It may be popular with employers, but individual pay for performance can undermine organisational effectiveness. Because if everyone is out to "do their own thing", the consequences for effective teamwork can be damaging - and sometimes even fatal.

French chief executives have overtaken their British counterparts as the best paid in Europe. But their rewards are still dwarfed by the sums earned by bosses in the U.S.

I've had the privilege of working in both Europe and in the United States, but clearly my horizons aren't amply expanded because I've yet to come across this during my work experiences.

You might think that offering an array of benefits to staff would make you an employer of choice. But many organizations offer perks that people simply don't want.

Amid all the predictions of economic doom and gloom for 2008, you might have thought that American workers would want to be seen spending time in the office. But not a bit of it.

What do you do when a dollar means nothing? That's the dilemma facing U.S. expats based in Europe whose pensions or incomes are paid in increasingly devalued dollars.

To what extend should incentives be used as a business strategy? Does motivation naturally follow incentives? Why are gross errors made and how can you protect against them? And how exactly can you use error as a foundation for excellence?

It's controversial, but performance-related pay for top executives does appear to work. In fact there is a clear correlation between highly paid executives and high-performing companies.

With bonuses becoming as rare as a turkey at New Year and increasing numbers of workers raiding their pension pots to make ends meet, this Christmas is unlikely to be very merry.

It's the end of the year and you can almost feel the employees at your company biting at your heels, looking for their holiday bonuses. Do you give out gift certificates? Do you hand out turkeys? What about cash?

Public companies are increasingly looking at non-financial measures when it comes to setting levels of executive pay and bonuses.

Most American employers remain committed to paying for healthcare. But there is growing concern that it may not be long before this no longer makes financial sense.

Virginia is once again showing why it's such a great state in which to live. Besides the proximity to the nation's capital, the historical importance of Jamestown and Williamsburg and the beauty of its rural areas, its social policies are a notch above for all of us who aren't business owners.

Pity the average Norwegian manager. Not only is freezing cold and dark half the year, but when it comes to spending power, they are the least well off managers in the world.

The online magazine Slate.com asked America last year for stories about "Corporate Scrooges" in order to create a list of the worst office parties, worst gifts, and worst bonuses the working world had ever seen.

You might think the benefits of getting and staying healthy are self-evident. But more American companies are finding they are having to pay workers to get the message.

Graduates and board directors may be at opposite ends of the career spectrum but one thing unites them – the gender pay gap.

Susan loves her job as a teacher, but the pay just isn't enough to ensure financial stability. But with a baby on the way, should she look for a job with better prospects or keep her peace of mind but continue to live paycheck to paycheck?

Britain's top executives have seen their earnings double in the past five years, with the average chief executive now taking home more than £3 million a year.

Two thirds of U.S workers who call in sick at the last minute are not ill at all, costing businesses more than three quarters of a million dollars a year.

Now, it's not that I don't like what we fondly refer to in America as "big box" stores, but I don't like to see the people who makes the least amount of money get screwed out of their already meager earnings.

The resolution of the GM labor dispute was a success in that both parties walked away feeling that they won something - and that's the way it should be.

If you have ambitions to sit on the board of one of Britain's blue-chip corporations, you may want to think again. Because the number of top jobs is declining rapidly.

America's demanding compliance climate means senior lawyers are increasingly commanding top-dollar salaries and bonuses.

The granting of stock remains one of corporate America's most powerful financial thank-yous, with some executive teams now owning as much as eight per cent of the company.

The days of being grateful for what you are offered by an employer are long gone. Today, talented workers are prepared to ask for big bucks to take up a job offer.

The number of high-flying British female managers stepping off the corporate treadmill or simply looking for a change of direction is at its highest level for half a decade.

The typical CEO of a top U.S. corporation earns more in a single workday than the average American takes home in an entire year. And there's no sign that the gap is getting narrower.

Bosses at Britain's biggest companies saw their pay rise by more than a third last year, with the average total package for a chief executive now nudging the £3m mark.

American workers have a very simple wish-list. They want to be paid more, they want better healthcare coverage and, above all, they want greater respect from their managers.

What's an employee worth? Should we measure it? Can we measure it? The answer is an emphatic 'yes' – and a rigorous analysis of what employees cost and the value they bring reveals huge financial losses or gains depending on how well they perform.

British bosses have come in for considerable flak over the past few years for their burgeoning pay packets, but according to a new poll, it is French executives who are the real fat-cats of Europe.

A popular backlash is growing throughout the world's most developed economies against economic globalization, large corporations and excessive executive pay.

Managers working in emerging economies such as Russia and Turkey may not earn as much as their counterparts in the West, but when it comes to real disposable income they are often better off.

CEOs and senior executives who are paid mainly in stock options are far more likely to misrepresent their company's financial position to rig its share price, new research has found.

In this day and age, it simply isn't possible for a single "celeb CEO" to take the helm of a complex organisation, making all the decisions and demanding sole control. That's one of the points made by Robert Heller in a wide-ranging discussion about CEOs, pay and leadership for this week's Working Week podcast.

There are days when I wake up and wonder what year we're living in. No, it's not because women are wearing hideous boots from the 1970s or because all the bands I enjoyed as a child are now reforming – albeit at age 50.

Summer in the United States is synonymous with several things: baseball, beer, barbecues, and now, the national contract talks between American autoworkers unions and Detroit's big three car makers.

Their salaries may have risen by six per cent last year, but British non-execs are far from being fat-cats. Because their salary growth has slowed dramatically despite the demands on their time rising fast.

If you want to get talent through your door you throw money at them, right? Wrong – money is a factor, but what really matters is holidays, where they are going to be based and whether or not they will be able to work flexibly.

Just when you thought that shareholder activism and concerted political pressure was starting to have a sobering effect on executive pay, along came private equity.

A sure-fire way to boost the commitment and contentment of your staff is simply to pay them more money, right? Wrong - in fact according to new research, this could have precisely the opposite effect.

Never mind about excessive pay packets for Britain's chief executives, it's finance directors who are really in the money at the moment, with salaries for top performers rising nearly a quarter in the past year.

Prenuptial agreements have long since ceased to be the preserve of Hollywood stars and plutocrats. But now, reports the Financial Times, postnuptial agreements are becoming more commonplace among hedge fund managers keen to safeguard their fortunes in the event of a divorce.