Benefits and Compensation Commons^™

Six Steps To Implement A Mentor Program, Dow Scott, Sanjay Patel, Dwight Klein, Dale Moyer

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A recent survey by the Chicago Compensation Association (CCA) found only 15 percent of its membership had three years or less experience in the profession and 15 percent had four to six years’ experience. Furthermore, senior members complained that it was difficult to find applicants with the education and experience needed to fill entry-level compensation and benefits jobs. In an effort to strengthen its appeal to early career professionals and to provide a meaningful development experience, CCA launched a mentor program in spring 2012 after more than a year of development.

Do Mlb Hitters Boost Performance In Their Contract Year?, Heather M. O'Neill

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

This study focuses on 256 MLB free agent hitters playing under the 2006-2011 CBA to determine whether they boost their offensive performance in their contract year. Prior studies’ results are mixed, depending on the econometric technique used and the choice of the offensive performance measure.

Having multiple year observations per player, one can incorporate the unobserved traits of the players (ability, risk aversion, work ethic, etc.) by using Fixed Effects (FE) estimation. Since these unmeasured player traits are likely to be correlated with observed predictors of performance (games played, playoff contention, age, etc.), traditionally used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and …

Teleworking: An Examination Of The Irish Dichotomy, Deirdre O'Donovan, Angela Wright

Dept. of Organisation & Professional Development Publications

Changing demographics and labour market structures are placing increased pressure on identifying work/life balance solutions, while global competition is forcing companies to look beyond traditional solutions to search for competitive advantage. Recent rapid technology developments facilitate a strategic application of teleworking, which, in suitable organisations, would appear to alleviate both of these issues. Despite this, the limited evidence that exists in the telework literature indicates a dearth of telework in Irish companies, and recent research on the reasons for this, form a gap in the literature.

This study, empirically examines the key factors that influence the extent of telework in …

Pilots For Space Tourism, Robert A. Goehlich, Jay K. Anderson, Nathan N. Harrold, Joseph A. Bemis, Mike T. Nettleingham, Joshua M. Cobin, Bradley R. Zimmerman, Ben L. Avni, Michael D. Gonyea, Nicholas Y. Ilchena

Applied Aerospace Science

This article sheds light on the key player needed for any space tourism adventure: the pilot who flies the spacecraft. The paper addresses the potential benefits of including a pilot at the controls when designing a space tourism spacecraft. It examines the basic qualifications and advanced skills required of space tourism pilots and discusses key training requirements for selected pilots and space pilots’ pay and benefits. In addition, the research concludes that, just as the pioneers of passenger transport in aviation entertained and captured the interest of their passengers, the space pilot should have the skills of a tour guide.

The Power Of One: Effects Of Ceo Duality On Compensation Committee Quality And Ceo Compensation, Cindy K. Harris, Carol C. Cirka, Eric Farris

Business and Economics Faculty Publications

This paper contributes to the corporate governance literature by focusing on how Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) duality and compensation committee quality are related to CEO compensation in the period since passage of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (“SOX”). Unlike research prior to SOX that focused chiefly on committee members’ independence, we measure compensation committee quality in two ways. We consider the average number of board directorships held by compensation committee members as well as the proportion of committee members with prior or current CEO duality experience. We introduce the latter variable as a new measure of quality as it has not …

Vacation As Compensation, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

There is enormous variation in vacation time. Just as there are differences in what pay mix and workplace pract ices are normal, so are there differences in vacation time — across countries, occupations, companies and time.

The Look Of The Line: An Empirical Investigation Of The Impacts Of Facial Symmetry On Salary Levels Of Offensive Linemen In The Nfl, Kristen Wampole

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Evaluation of a professional athlete's performance for the purposes of compensation determination is difficult, especially when decision making may not follow the expected "instrumental rationality." This paper will look to examine the factors, both productive and non-productive, impacting an Offensive Lineman's salary in the NFL. The purpose of this study is to determine whether an offensive lineman's salary is based on productive characteristics adhering to instrumental rationality, or whether the influence of non-productive characteristics influence salary as ultimately determined by team management. Results indicate that players within the tackle position with earning salaries in the seventy-fifth percentile gain additional benefits …

Does Race Influence Executive Compensation In Chinese Firms?, Elizabeth Mahoney

Business and Economics Honors Papers

In this study, we considered the effects of Chinese cultural and political influences on executive compensation in Chinese firms. The chief focus of this study is on whether the race of executives or the racial composition of the compensation committee affects the average compensation of executives, though other factors such as sales, industry, and compensation committee size were also included in the model. Data was collected from Chinese firms listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with data for the companies gathered for the year 2009 and executive salaries collected for the year 2010.

What Effect Do Corporate Governance Characteristics Have On Ceo Compensation In A Small Cap Firm?, Kiley Stauffer

Business and Economics Honors Papers

Extensive research has been conducted to examine the effect that corporate governance structure has on CEO compensation. Past studies have focused primarily on larger corporations and have neglected smaller public firms. By shifting focus to small cap firms, this study hopes to find patterns between CEO compensation and specific corporate governance components. These include CEO duality, the presence of a dual founder CEO, and the level of equity ownership held by the CEO. Empirical evidence has suggested that CEO duality and increased ownership equity of a dual founder CEO may significantly impact CEO compensation.

Research Brief: "The Effect Of Veterans Benefits On Education And Earnings", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This study found that veterans’ benefits which subsidize education make up the largest federal program for student aid, and that veterans’ benefits are estimated to increase future schooling by 1.4 years, meaning annual earnings for these veterans will be 6% higher than they would have been otherwise. In practice, that implies annual earnings approximately 6% higher than would have been expected in the absence of the benefits. In policy, policymakers should note that this study found smaller effects on earnings and education than previous studies have found. Suggestions for future study include comparing the annual earnings premium for veterans’ benefit …

What Determines Public Pension Investment Risk-Taking Policy, Nancy Mohan, Ting Zhang

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

State public pension plans, mostly defined benefit plans, cover pension benefits for 12.8 million active public employees and 5.9 million retirees and other annuitants. However, by the end of 2009, public pension plans had accumulated a total funding deficit of $697 billion (measured by the difference between actuarial pension assets and liabilities). On average, public pension funds cover 75 percent of their liabilities, but individual state results vary greatly.

The 2008 stock market crash strongly affected pension asset value in that equity allocation on average accounted for 56 percent of invested assets. The average 2009 pension asset beta of 0.63 …

Upjohn Institute Policy Paper: Public Pension Crisis And Investment Risk Taking: Underfunding, Fiscal Constraints, Public Accounting, And Policy Implications, Nancy Mohan, Ting Zhang

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

Public pension funds that cover retirement benefits for almost 20 million active or retired employees have been significantly underfunded. An important, though largely overlooked, issue related to pension underfunding is the excessive investment risk levels assumed by public plans. Our analysis suggests government accounting standards strongly affect public fund investment risk, as higher return assumptions (used to discount pension liabilities) are associated with higher investment risk.

Public funds undertake more risk if they are underfunded and have lower investment returns in previous years, consistent with the risk transfer hypothesis. Furthermore, pension funds in states facing fiscal constraints allocate more assets …

Nothing Lasts Forever: A Different Way To Structure Severance, Kevin F. Hallock

Economics Faculty Publications

When a CEO receives a massive payout in the face of job cuts and a precipitous drop in stock price, should we really be surprised to see shareholders (and the public) get upset?

Justice In Compensation: A Defense, Jeffrey Moriarty

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Business ethicists have written much about ethical issues in employment. Except for a handful of articles on the very high pay of chief executive officers and the very low pay of workers in overseas sweatshops, however, little has been written about the ethics of compensation. This is prima facie strange. Workers care about their pay, and they think about it in normative terms. This article's purpose is to consider whether business ethicists' neglect of the normative aspects of compensation is justified. I examine several possible justifications for neglecting compensation and show that they fail. What remains is a case for …

Cultural Context And Its Affect On Management Practices In Organizations - A Special Focus Of Compensation Practices, Shandana Shuaib

Business Review

Management practices are carried out in organizations which operate in some sort of environment. The environment is basically divided into two types: internal environment and external environment. In both these environments culture constitutes the main part. Thus, in order to fully comprehend the management practices in organizations it is utmost necessary to understand the cultural context of that society in which it operates. Many management practices if enforced without taking into consideration its cultural context may not yield the expected results. Similarly a management practice which might be very effective in one culture may not be so in another cultural …

Matthew And Work, Theology Of Work Project, Jonathan Pennington, Alice Matthews

Theology of Work Project

1. Introduction to Matthew
   • The Kingdom of Heaven Has Come Near (Matthew)
2. Working as Citizens of God's Kingdom (Matthew 1-4)
   • Why Should We Listen to Jesus? (Matthew 1-2)
   • Jesus Calling (Matthew 3-4)
3. The Kingdom of Heaven at Work in Us (Matthew 5-7)
   • The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12)
     • "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:3)
     • "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matthew 5:4)
     • "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5)
     • "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6) …

Does Distributive Justice Pay? Sternberg’S Compensation Ethics, Jeffrey Moriarty

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Compensation has received a great deal of attention from social scientists. Characteristically, they have been concerned with the causes and effects of various compensation schemes. By contrast, few theorists have addressed the normative aspects of compensation. An exception is Elaine Sternberg, who offers in Just Business a comprehensive theory of compensation ethics. This paper critically examines her theory, and argues that the justification she gives for it fails. Its failure is instructive, however. The main argument Sternberg gives for her theory points in the direction of a different one. This, in turns, helps us to see what a justification of …

The Love Of Money Is The Root Of All Evil: Pay Satisfaction And Cpi As Moderators, Thomas Li Ping Tang, Toto Sutarso, Mahfooz A. Ansari, Vivien Kim Geok Lim, Thompson Sian Hin Teo, Fernando Arias-Galicia, Ilya Garber, Peter Vlerick, Jian Liang, Adebowale Akande, Michael W. Allen, Abdulgawi Salim Alzubaidi, Mark G. Borg, Brigitte Charles-Pauvers, Bor Shiuan Cheng, Randy K. Chiu, Linzhi Du, Consuelo Garcia De La Torre, Rosario Correia Higgs, Abdul Hamid Safwat Ibrahim, Chin Kang Jen, Ali Mahdi Kazem, Kilsun Kim, Roberto Luna-Arocas, Eva Malovics, Alice S. Moreira, Richard T. Mpoyi, Anthony Ugochukwu Obiajulu Nnedum, Johnsto E. Osagie, Aahad M. Osman-Gani, Mehmet Ferhat Özbek, Allen F. Stembridge

Faculty Publications

By incorporating pay satisfaction at Level 1 and Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) at Level 2, we investigated the relationship between the love of money and self-reported corrupt intent among 6,382 managers in 31 geopolitical entities across six continents. Our significant cross-level three-way interaction effect showed that for managers with high pay satisfaction, the intensity (slope) of the love of money to corrupt intent relationship was almost identical in high or low CPI entities but the former had the lowest magnitude of corrupt intent, whereas the latter had the highest. For those with low pay satisfaction, the slope was the steepest …

A Linear Programming Approach For Determining Travel Cost Minimizing Ecss Training Locations, Jason S. Boerboom

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense is currently operating in a fiscally constrained environment, and Air Force leaders are pressured to minimize spending while pursuing mission critical objectives. Personnel travel usurps a significant portion of the Air Force’s annual operations and maintenance (O&M) budget each year, but receives little attention with respect to cost saving strategies. During the Air Force’s implementation of the Expeditionary Combat Support System (ECSS), in which over 250,000 end-users will require training, it is vital that the Department determine the training locations that minimize costs incurred through personnel travel. This thesis seeks to determine which potential ECSS training …

Downside Risk Optimization Of The Thrift Savings Plan Lifecycle Fund Portfolios, Matthew C. Beck

Theses and Dissertations

The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), the defined benefit contribution plan for the US Government, introduced the asset allocation Lifecycle (L) Funds in August 2005. These funds seek to minimize risk and maximize expected portfolio return via mean-variance optimization (MVO). The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and examine the efficiency of the TSP L Funds and create alternative L Fund portfolios via downside risk optimization (DRO). Whereas MVO minimizes the portfolio variance (standard deviation), DRO seeks to minimize the risk below an investor’s minimal acceptable return in the market, defined as the Co-Lower Partial Moment (CLPM). The research team …

Stats Or Studs: Does It Pay To Be Good Looking? The Economic Impact Of Lookism, Lisle O'Neill

Business and Economics Honors Papers

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is a phrase that exemplifies the subjectivity of attractiveness. In recent years, researchers in the fields of economics, sociology, and anaplasty have used symmetry analysis in an attempt to make beauty an objective issue. People characterized by greater facial symmetry, as defined by exhibiting balanced lateral proportions, are considered to be more attractive. Furthermore, labor economists, such as Hamermesh and Biddle (1994), suggest a wage premium for more attractive individuals, however, the measure of attractiveness was not based on symmetry. This study examines the effect of NFL quarterbacks' attractiveness on …

Analysis Of The Military Medical Retirement System, Joseph M. Barnum

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the 60 year old military medical retirement system. Specifically, this thesis answered three research questions regarding a comparison of pay between the current system and the societal standard for injury and illness, identification of current segments of the military population disproportionately affected by the current system, and establishment of a minimal standard for medical retirement compensation. Previous research established the societal standard for compensation as the Value of Statistical Life. This thesis compared the current military medical retirement system with the Value of Statistical Life and identified several segments of the military …

The Correlation Of Human Capital On Costs Of Air Force Acquisition Programs, Stephen E. Gray

Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies have linked human capital with performance. The studies have shown performance, measured as output, of a firm can be increased by adding more personnel and/or increasing education levels. This research uses the Cobb-Douglas Production function to build upon that relationship of inputs to outputs. The output in this study is the average cost overrun of Aeronautical Systems Center research, development, test, and evaluation contracts managed from 1994 to 2008. The inputs are the numbers of military/government employee financial managers, program managers, engineers, rated personnel, and military/government employees in those career fields possessing a graduate degree or higher. A …

Modeling U.S. Occupational Health Costs, Joseph M. Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this research was to improve the effectiveness of cost comparison analyses for the 75th Aerospace Medicine Group, Hill Air Force Base, Utah. Bioenvironmental engineers sought a more robust cost comparison tool, allowing engineers to quickly determine the viability of proposed occupational health-related expenditures. To justify the funding of potential projects, engineers must quantify the expected cost savings. Improved cost comparison analysis enables personnel to better justify worthy projects or filter out uneconomical solutions. A secondary purpose of this research was to validate Department of Defense (DoD) occupational illness cost factors. This research effort focused on cost …

How Much Compensation Can Ceos Permissibly Accept?, Jeffrey Moriarty

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Debates about the ethics of executive compensation are dominated by familiar themes. Many writers consider whether the amount of pay CEOs receive is too large – relative to firm performance, foreign CEO pay, or employee pay. Many others consider whether the process by which CEOs are paid is compromised by weak or self-serving boards of directors. This paper examines the issue from a new perspective. I focus on the duties executives themselves have with respect to their own compensation. I argue that CEOs’ fiduciary duties place a moral limit on how much compensation they can accept, and hence seek in …

Deserving Jobs, Deserving Wages, Jeffrey Moriarty

Philosophy Faculty Publications

This chapter applies recent work on desert to two sets of issues in business ethics. The first set of issues concerns who ought to be hired, fired, promoted, and demoted. Call these issues of “job justice.” The second set of issues concerns how much workers, including managers, ought to be paid. Call these issues of “wage justice.” I focus on job and wage justice because considerations of desert play an important, though sometimes tacit, role in discussions of these issues.

The Law Librarian’S Tool For Fair Compensation In The Best - And Worst - Of Times, Femi Cadmus, Loretta Orndoff

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Cost And Benefits Of Upskilling The Irish Labour Force, Peter Daly

Theses

This study assesses the position of Irish businesses in relation to upskilling their workers in the globalised business environment. There is a scarce amount of data published on the implications for Irish businesses and their interaction state supports for upskilling the Irish labour-force.

This study has found that Irish businesses recognise that they now operate in a global market and that they believe that a strong third and vocational level of skills exist but work based skills must improve. Outsourcing parts of the business process is not considered a preferred option of skills replacement by Irish businesses but business networks …

Attitudes Related To Ceo Compensation, Donald S. White

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines attitudes of individuals related to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) compensation within the context of interactions between organizational variables (level of employee pay, firm performance, and corporate social responsibility) and individual-level variables (equity sensitivity, race similarity to CEO, and respondent's pay). Vignettes (see Appendix A) were created in which respondents will have an opportunity to express their opinions on the distributive justice of CEO pay. The CEOs presented in the vignettes represented non-specific companies and had the same level of high total compensation. The respondents provided opinions of CEO pay and information about their own pay on a …

A Wellness Guide For Recruiting Non-Participants Into A Worksite Health Promotion Program, Lorenzo Patrick Cassella Jr.

Graduate Theses

Rising costs of healthcare have motivated employers to offer comprehensive health promotion programs to their employees, to reduce health risk factors such as physical inactivity, poor nutrition, high stress, etc., thereby lowering both direct (i.e., medical) costs and indirect (i.e., absenteeism) costs. The majority of worksite health promotion (WHP) programs only show short-term (i.e., under 12 weeks) employee improvement in any one type of program for a few reasons; > Employers develop action-oriented tools. > Employers do not match current programs with the condition of their population. ^ Employers do not integrate the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) and the Processes of Change into …