Recently in Compensation Category

Source: Mark Ginsberg, and Rae Pica With Marcy Whitebook, NAEYC Radio, February 2010

From the press release:
In this segment, Dr. Whitebook says that most child care professionals make less than parking lot attendants. In fact, on average child care providers make about $15,000-$20,000 a year depending on where they live and what age group they care for. Dr. Whitebook says the reason for such low pay is that the United States never placed the same value on early childhood education as it has for the rest of the K-12 spectrum. While she says some attitudes have changed some, especially based on research of brain development in the early years, attitudes haven't changed enough to make a significant impact on wages.
See also:
Animal Trainer. Parking Attendant. Child Care Professional.
Source: Lisa Guernsey, Early Ed Watch Blog, February 17, 2010

Source: Kristen Schilt, Matthew Wiswall, The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, Vol. 8, Issue 1, 2008
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
We use the workplace experiences of transgender people - individuals who change their gender typically with hormone therapy and surgery - to provide new insights into the long-standing question of what role gender plays in shaping workplace outcomes. Using an original survey of male-to-female and female-to-male transgender people, we document the earnings and employment experiences of transgender people before and after their gender transitions. We find that while transgender people have the same human capital after their transitions, their workplace experiences often change radically. We estimate that average earnings for female-to-male transgender workers increase slightly following their gender transitions, while average earnings for male-to-female transgender workers fall by nearly 1/3. This finding is consistent with qualitative evidence that for many male-to-female workers, becoming a woman often brings a loss of authority, harassment, and termination, but that for many female-to-male workers, becoming a man often brings an increase in respect and authority. These findings challenge the omitted variables explanations for the gender pay gap and illustrate the often hidden and subtle processes that produce gender inequality in workplace outcomes.

Source: IPS Program on Inequality and the Common Good, 2009

From the summary:
Median household income in 2008 was $50,303, according to Census data. Half of American households had income greater than this figure, half had less.

Between the end of World War II and the late 1970s, incomes in the United States were becoming more equal. In other words, incomes at the bottom were rising faster than those at the top. Since the late 1970s, this trend has reversed.

· Percentage of U.S. total income in 1976 that went to the top 1% of American households: 8.9.
· Percentage in 2007: 23.5.
· Only other year since 1913 that the top 1 percent's share was that high: 1928.
· Combined net worth of the Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans in 2007: $1.5 trillion.
· Combined net worth of the poorest 50% of American households: $1.6 trillion.
· U.S. minimum wage, per hour: $7.25.
· Hourly pay of Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon, for an 80-hour week: $27,034.74.
· Average hourly wage in 1972, adjusted for inflation: $20.06.
· In 2008: $18.52.

Source: John Schmitt and Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research, December 2009

We use Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data on the economy since 2007 and Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projections of economic performance through 2012 to estimate the total loss of wages and salaries resulting from the decrease in employment in the current downturn.

Using a methodology that produces a conservative estimate of expected losses, we find that the fall in employment from its 2007 levels will cost U.S. workers just over $1 trillion in lost wages and salaries during the five-year period 2008-2012.

The estimated lost wages and salaries exceed - by about $150 billion - the CBO's estimate of the full ten-year cost of the health-care reform bill that recently passed in the House of Representatives.

Source: Les Bland, Research Library Issues: A Bimonthly Report from ARL, CNI, and SPARC, no. 266, October 2009

The ARL Annual Salary Survey 2008-2009 shows that current ARL librarian's salaries have failed to keep pace with inflation. This is in contrast to 2007-08 when the increase in median salaries exceeded the rise of inflation as judged by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The median salary of ARL academic librarians in the United States for 2008-09 was $63,673; an increase of 3.8% from the previous reporting period of 2007-08. However, during this same period, the U.S. CPI rose 5.6%. In Canada, the experience of ARL academic librarians was similar (but not as extreme): Canadian ARL academic librarians earned a median salary of $78,742 (Canadian Dollars) an increase of 3.3% from the previous year, which also failed to match a 3.4% rise in inflation as reported by the Canadian CPI. The salaries of ARL non-academic librarians experienced larger growth, as their median salaries increased 6%, from $80,261 (2007-08) to $85,320 (thereby exceeding inflation). Moreover, non-academic librarian's median salaries were 25.4% higher than that of academic librarians.

Source: Lindsay Coker, Employee Relations Law Journal, Vol. 35 no. 3, Winter 2009

This article considers unpaid internships under the Fair Labor Standards Act and advises employers to analyze any existing or contemplated program for unpaid internships and ensure that it is in compliance with Department of Labor guidelines.

Source: International Labour Organisation, 2009

The present report is an update of the Global Wages Report 2008/09 released in November 2008. The latter was the first in a new series of reports to be published every two years to describe and analyse trends in a number of wage indicators, including average wages, wage inequality between men and women, differentials between high and low wages, the share of wages in GDP, and statutory or negotiated minimum wages. The report covered the years 1995-2007, which were characterised by a generally favourable economic context. Since then, the economic context has changed dramatically. In light of the global economic downturn, the Members of the ILO signed the Global Jobs Pact in June 2009, whereby they agreed to consider strengthening social dialogue, collective bargaining and statutory or negotiated minimum wages in order to avoid deflationary wage spirals and to enhance social protection. While a comprehensive assessment will be provided in the next full Global Wage Report in 2010, the present update already provides some indications of wage trends up to the second quarter of 2009 in a number of countries around the world.
See also:
Press Release

Source: Board of Certified Safety Professionals, 2009

This database provides compensation information gathered from survey information received voluntarily from individuals holding the CSP certification, as well as those with the OHST, and CHST certifications and/or the designation of ASP.

Based on a comparison of data in this study and data from other salary studies for safety practitioners, salaries of those holding the CSP are often higher than those in safety practice who do not hold the CSP.
See also:
Salary Survey 2009
Source: Deidre Bello, Safety + Health, Vol. 180 no. 5, November 2009
(subscription required)

Source: Jeannette Wicks-Lim, Political Economy Research Institute, September 2009

In "Creating Decent Jobs in the United States," Jeannette Wicks-Lim finds that to improve workers' wages and benefits in the coming decade, we must create meaningful improvements in pay and benefits in the occupations showing the strongest growth, and that collective bargaining presents a powerful way to do so. Wicks-Lim finds that a union worker has a 20 percent greater chance of having a decent job than a similar non-union worker. The study also shows that there is no strong evidence that higher unionization rates lead to higher unemployment rates.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, October 2009

From the summary:
The Census Bureau will release alternative income and poverty estimates covering calendar year 2008. The data were collected from the 2009 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC). The first set of alternative measures include poverty estimates only and are based on recommendations from a 1995 National Academy of Sciences panel on measuring poverty. These estimates use a broadened definition of income and a set of poverty thresholds that are conceptually consistent with this income measure. The second set of alternative measures includes both income and poverty estimates and shows the impact of cash and noncash benefits and taxes on the distribution of income and prevalence of poverty. The poverty estimates in this series are based on the official poverty thresholds. Both of these alternative measures are similar to estimates released in January 2009 covering calendar year 2007 from the 2008 CPS ASEC.