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Agency theory is used in a study to examine whether the culture of nations influence corporate governance relating to the offer of employee incentives.

Before he could save the galaxy from the evil Empire, Luke Skywalker had to learn the ways of the Force. He had to expand his skills, overcoming both doubts about [...]

With the bankruptcy of Enron and the accompanying loss of pension benefits of its employees, pensions have recently received significant press. Accounting for pension plan obligations, for defined benefit plans in particular, requires companies to make assumptions regarding discount rates, projected salary increases, and expected long-term return on plan assets. Such assumptions, in turn, determine the funding status of the pension plan and the annual pension expense. Higher assumed discount rates reduce the pension obligation, enhance the funding status of the plan, and reduce any lump-sum payments. Higher expected return on assets reduces the current pension expense. This study investigates the relationship between pension plan assumptions and the funding status of a pension plan. The results reveal that companies with pension plans that are more fully funded assume higher discount rates and expected long-term return on assets than do companies with less funded plans. The effect of these assumptions is that higher discount rate assumptions lead to better funding status, and higher expected long-term rates of return on assets partially offset the pension expense impacts of these higher discount rate assumptions. We are doubtful that more funded plans collectively should be assuming higher discount rates and expected long-term return on plan assets, especially since the actual return on plan assets investigated did not correlate with these assumptions.

ARKANSAS BUSINESS LIST: PUBLIC COS. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION Ranked by total compensation in 2001 Total 2001 Executive, Title Compensation/ Company 2000 Compensation 1 Wayne Garrison, COB $11,118,444 J.B. Hunt Transport $375,000 [...]

Companies debate whether or not to manage their employee super funds, call in mastertrusts or turn them over to industry funds. Accompanying tables show survey results of corporate funds and a comparison of industry funds and mastertrusts.

Prior research has investigated determinants of CEO compensation. However, that research has been primarily limited to large firms. This study investigates the impact of CEO influence over the board of directors on CEO pay for both large and small firms. Additionally, other determinants of CEO pay for both large and small firms are examined. Results suggest that CEO influence over the board significantly affects CEO pay for large firms. However, we do not find the same evidence for small firms. Firm size is the primary factor of CEO pay for small firms. Evidence in this study suggests that CEO pay of large firms is mostly a function of CEO influence over the board, firm size, and firm performance.

Wellness programs are aimed at encouraging employees to stay safe and healthy, but their benefits are sometimes intangible. Issues concerning the effectiveness of wellness programs are discussed.

Companies are increasingly outsourcing their employee benefit plans and expect a high level of service and commitment. Some of the latest services available are discussed.

The latest trends in administrative outsourcing are discussed, including those relating to employee benefits management.

Results of a survey into the benefits of medical savings account options for large- and medium-sized company's employee benefit plans are presented.

Issues are discussed concerning the hiring of outsourcing partners for employee benefit plans.

A checklist of questions for companies planning to outsource the delivery of their main employee benefit plans to ask prospective partners is provided. Includes an outsourcing case study.

Group legal plans can increase employee productivity by enabling employees to handle their legal problems within the workplace. A total of 70-80% of legal issues can be resolved through mail, telephone or fax.

The death of the company car has long been predicted but there is no evidence of its demise, despite government disincentives. It is estimated that some 50% of the 2.17 million new cars sold in the UK in 1997 were company sales, with the top 10 contract-hire companies having a combined fleet of 570,000, up 16% from 1996. The company car concept has become part of Britain's way of life and while its future may be doomed, the company car is likely to continue to dominate the new car market in the short-term.

A study was conducted to determine the differences between US and Taiwanese firms in terms of the measurement, evaluation and rewarding profit center managers. Four research propositions were made. The first states that Taiwanese firms provide smaller monetary rewards based on individual performance. The second proposition holds that Taiwanese firms are more prone to basing performance-based rewards on group performance rather than individual performance. The third claims that Taiwanese firms use long-term incentives less often. Lastly, it is proposed that performance evaluations of profit center managers in Taiwanese firms are more subjective. Of the four, only the third proposition was supported. Managers' education and experience, their attitudes toward the stock market, the company's stage and pattern of growth, the labor force mobility in the country, type of business and the use of consultants were all found to explain the differences.

Incentive compensation below the executive level has been a slow development among corporations. They should be properly designed to get results. Ernst & Young has enumerated ten criteria for the successful implementation of incentive compensation planning. These basic criteria can be applied to traditional settings involving individual performance and nontraditional settings involving skill-based pay or gainsharing.

Executive consider employment packages by assessing the salary, the bonus and retirement benefits. The growing restrictions on the amount of benefits qualified retirement plans can pay is a challenge for executives. The increased activity of mergers and acquisitions further pose as obstacles to executives' retirement plans. Employers are reverting to unsecured nonqualified benefits. Rabbicular Trusts has evolved to provide for security arrangements for employers and executives. They attract and retain executives.

Developing a cross-border approach in executive pay remains a difficult task for multinational corporations. Several factors underlie and must be taken into account when creating such cross-border schemes, such as comparative pay levels, total compensation packages and cultural attitudes toward executive compensation. Full communication is imperative as companies continue to experiment with these cross-border systems.

American multinational companies seeking to develop an effective international benefits policy need to plan carefully at the corporate level and in relation to the local environment. In many cases, these businesses develop benefit guidelines at the corporate headquarters and proceed to apply these to their foreign operations. This strategy is bound to run into serious problems largely because the benefits environment varies from country to country. For instance, US multinationals are likely to have defined contribution plans but their operations in other parts of the world may have other plans. In the UK, Germany and Japan, defined benefit plans are more popular, while compulsory benefit arrangements are preferred in France. In addition to considering the local environment, an international benefits policy should be based on the company's basic benefits philosophy.

Prizefighters touch gloves before pummeling each other. So let me say a few words about Ira Kay before the bell rings and I come charging out of my corner. Though [...]

Information on pay and condition settlements of companies, industry and the public sector are given in tabular form.

The advantages of a mixed program that combines the growth possibilities of a defined contribution plan with the security of a defined benefit plan are examined. Companies must rethink their retirement benefit planning in certain degree that acknowledges the longer term strategic results of cutting back for the purpose of short-term financial gains.

Employers are unwilling to commit themselves to family-care policies because they think that the work output cannot compensate for company costs and liability. In actuality, expenditures in the implementation of health-care benefits are lower that what most companies expect. Moreover, family-care policies boost employee morale, increase productivity and generate increased leverage in hiring and retaining personnel., Some companies claim that cost and liability concerns prevent them from adopting family care policies. However, there are three underlying stereotypes that usually dominate this type of reasoning. The most [...]

Employers are reducing retiree health benefit coverage because of rising medical care costs, altered postemployment benefit accounting rules and increasing numbers of retirees. A survey by A. Foster Higgins and Company Inc. of 1,185 employers found 59% surveyed believe in a employer-retiree shared responsibility system. Of employers surveyed, 32% want to enlarge retiree contributions. Other proposals include enlarging deductibles, modifying benefit plans' coordination with Medicare and fixed-dollar amount plans. Also at issue is Financial Accounting Standard 106 which, starting in 1993, demands that retiree health benefit liabilities accumulate as 'expense against earnings' from date of hire.

Smaller firms fare well, according to a survey comparing benefits offered by Indiana employers. It's a common perception that employee benefits are better when the company is bigger. But it's [...]

An employer must comply with complex regulations in order to qualify for the qualified separate line of business (QSLOB) determination under section 414(r). Once the employer has established that it maintains a QSLOB, it must follow complex rules in assigning various classes of employees and the benefits provided them among the QSLOBs.

You're caught between a rock and a hard place: Your employees are demanding different kinds of health care coverage but costs are skyrocketing. The solution? A flexible benefits program - [...]

When was the last time your annual health care cost per employee went down? All across the country, employers and employees are witnessing average premium increases of between 10% and [...]

Top 12 executives get average salary of $524,414 Keep A.M. Gleason waiting for five minutes and Pacifi-Corp wastes $20. If Gleason's held up in traffic for 15 minutes, the company [...]

The salaries, bonuses, and performances of business executives and money managers are examined as many companies experience economic downturn. A chart is included that provides share decline data for several corporations.

Stock options. They are at the forefront of a lot of financial planning and revisions now going on within publicly traded companies, in the restaurant industry and other sectors of [...]

With the time for preparing and distributing W-2s rapidly approaching, sponsors of profit-sharing and 401(k) plans once again must carefully navigate through a series of regulations dictating who is and [...]

This discussion of retiree benefits finds that currently, companies want to cut costs and not carry liabilities on their books, so they are looking for ways to reduce these liabilities. Efforts to reduce liabilities come as premiums for health care are soaring. Among the strategies being used by companies to juggle these issues are to eliminate or modify retiree benefits; use a defined contribution approach; cap subsidies; and turn to Medicare health maintenance organizations (HMOs).

CPAs stay with their firms for a variety of reasons, despite the pull of the lucrative salaries made by corporate tax managers in private industry. A forum of CPAs indicated many professionals prefer the independence, work environment, challenge, and other intangible benefits provided by their accounting firms. Tables comparing salary ranges of CPAs with private industry tax managers and staff are included and discussed.