General readers have no idea why people should care about what executives are paid and why they are paid the way they are. That's the reason that The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, and other popular and practitioner publications have regular coverage on them. This book not only proposes a reason - executives need incentives in order to maximize firm value (economists call this agency theory) - it also describes the nature and design of executive compensation practices. Those incentives can take the form of benefits (salary, stock options), or prerquisites (reflecting the status of the executive within the organizational culture.

Strategies for gaining a powerful edge in the executive talent wars The competition for executive talent is fierce, making it imperative that executive compensation programs become an integral part of every company's strategic business plan. The Complete Guide to Executive Compensation provides in-depth coverage of current issues and trends in designing and administering executive compensation packages that are strategically, economically, and culturally sound. Renowned compensation and benefit expert Bruce Ellig begins by providing guidance for board members and company executives on defining a company's organization, culture, and business strategy, in order to establish a framework for executive compensation. He then discusses the often difficultbut essentialissues within that framework, including: Pay positioningrelative to the competitive environment Risk profilethe mix of salary, incentive compensation, and benefits Leveragethe relationship between incentive plan payouts and performance Timingthe mix of short- versus long-term incentive programs Incentive plan designobjectives, performance measures, and participation

The company is under-performing, its share price is trailing, and the CEO gets...a multi-million-dollar raise. This story is familiar, for good reason: as this book clearly demonstrates, structural flaws in corporate governance have produced widespread distortions in executive pay. Pay without Performance presents a disconcerting portrait of managers' influence over their own pay--and of a governance system that must fundamentally change if firms are to be managed in the interest of shareholders. Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried demonstrate that corporate boards have persistently failed to negotiate at arm's length with the executives they are meant to oversee. They give a richly detailed account of how pay practices--from option plans to retirement benefits--have decoupled compensation from performance and have camouflaged both the amount and performance-insensitivity of pay. Executives' unwonted influence over their compensation has hurt shareholders by increasing pay levels and, even more importantly, by leading to practices that dilute and distort managers' incentives. This book identifies basic problems with our current reliance on boards as guardians of shareholder interests. And the solution, the authors argue, is not merely to make these boards more independent of executives as recent reforms attempt to do. Rather, boards should also be made more dependent on shareholders by eliminating the arrangements that entrench directors and insulate them from their shareholders. A powerful critique of executive compensation and corporate governance, Pay without Performance points the way to restoring corporate integrity and improving corporate performance.

Executive Compensation Best Practices demystifies the topic of executive compensation, with a hands-on guide providing comprehensive compensation guidance for all members of the board. Essential reading for board members, CEOs, and senior human resources leaders from companies of every size, this book is the most authoritative reference on executive compensation.

Research on executive compensation has exploded in recent years, and this volume of specially commissioned essays brings the reader up-to-date on all of the latest developments in the field. Leading corporate governance scholars from a range of countries set out their views on four main areas of executive compensation: the history and theory of executive compensation, the structure of executive pay, corporate governance and executive compensation, and international perspectives on executive pay. The authors analyze the two dominant theoretical approaches – managerial power theory and optimal contracting theory – and examine their impact on executive pay levels and the practices of concentrated and dispersed share ownership in corporations. The effectiveness of government regulation of executive pay and international executive pay practices in Australia, the US, Europe, China, India and Japan are also discussed. A timely study of a controversial topic, the Handbook will be an essential resource for students, scholars and practitioners of law, finance, business and accounting.

The definitive guide to executive compensation—fully updated and revised to reflect today’s business environment Executive pay is one of the most fluid, flexible, and important aspects of today’s corporate landscape, and an integral part of every company’s strategic business plan. The Complete Guide to Executive Compensation has long been considered the go-to guide to executive pay. Written by renowned compensation expert Bruce Ellig, the book is filled with winning strategies and techniques for structuring appropriate executive pay plans. This updated fourth edition addresses important changes that have occurred from 2013 to 2019 in designing and administering compensation packages. In detail, Ellig discusses executive pay elements, including salary, employee benefits, executive benefits, and long- and short term incentives. He also examines the role of the board of directors and its compensation committee, along with the influence of the major stakeholders (most notably the shareholder). The Complete Guide to Executive Compensation, Fourth Edition covers: New rulings and laws, such as the 2018 Tax Act and recent changes in proxy statements required by the SEC Changes in healthcare and pension requirements Executive pay elements and contributing factors The difference between current and deferred compensation, including statutory requirements Various performance measurements of the income statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement that are used in incentive plan payouts The book also includes appendices of selected laws, Internal Revenue Code sections, IRS revenue rulings, SEC actions, accounting interpretations, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, selected books, history of CPI, DJIA, NASDAQ, S&P 500 Averages, and Social Security taxes, as well as a glossary with more than 2,000 definitions.The Complete Guide to Executive Compensation addresses a wide range of needs and readers. Consultants and in-house pay designers will find detailed examples (supplemented with over 400 charts and tables) to trigger their own creativity.Boards of directors and compensation committees will benefit from the definitions and descriptions of various pay plans and the conditions under which they would be appropriate. Executives will find valuable tools here to help them understand their own pay plans. This is an essential resource for consultants, legislators, in-house designers, approvers, shareholders, executives, and educators.Whether you’re an executive or a designer, approver, or administrator of executive pay plans, this welcome fourth edition of the classic guide thoroughly reframes the picture of executive compensation for the modern age.