Our Blog: Employee Pay and Compensation

In these tough times, most of what we are seeing in our newspapers and news feeds is negative and dark.  I won’t repeat the staggering numbers and scary predictions here because we’ve all seen them.  Instead, I wanted to take this opportunity to share some uplifting news and to report on the remarkable steps some members of the business community …

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Today, August 22, 2019 marks Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. Why does such a day exist? It’s not just another day on the calendar to be lost among the litany of National Siblings Day, National Ice Cream Day or the like.  Black Women’s Equal Pay Day represents the number of days in 2019 that black women in America have had …

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More great news for workers in Illinois! Last week, Illinois passed legislation which prohibits employers from asking applicants about their pay history during the hiring process. The No Salary History law is an important step in closing the racial and gender wage gaps.

Before this law, employers could ask an applicant questions about their salary history. This helped to perpetuate lower …

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Newly Proposed Congressional Bill Targets Wage Gap

Just after returning from summer recess, Congress is off to a promising start with exciting proposed legislation for employees. On September 15, 2016, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, democratic delegate from the District of Columbia, introduced the Pay Equity for All Act of 2016 (H.R. 6030). The Bill aims to narrow the wage gap for …

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On January 29, 2016, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) announced a major proposed regulation change that would increase pay transparency for employers with 100 or more employees and help fight pay inequities based on a person’s protected status.

The EEOC is the government agency responsible for enforcing the federal anti-discrimination laws, including the laws that prohibit discrimination based on …

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With new generations emerging in the workforce, shifts in corporate thinking have begun to occur that have many talking. One of those shifts is toward the adoption of greater transparency between management and employees.  The thinking about transparency has started to change in one particularly controversial area: employee salaries.

Most companies treat compensation information as one of the most strictly protected, …

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The Vanishing Earned Bonus: Part II

Just wanted to post a quick update to our ongoing blog series addressing the ways in which employers and courts have been eating away at earned bonuses by reliance on language providing employers with absolute discretion in awarding incentive compensation.

Yesterday, in McCleary v. Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, 2015 Ill. App. (1st) 141287-U (Ill. App. 1st Dist. …

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A Worker’s Guide to the Chicago Mayoral Run-Off

In anticipation of the upcoming mayoral runoff election, we thought we’d delve into where the candidates (Rahm Emanuel and Jesus “Chuy” Garcia) stand on issues facing Chicago workers.  Unfortunately, because they have such different political experience – with incumbent Emanuel coming largely from work in the federal government and challenger Garcia being more …

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Yesterday was International Women’s Day which was created to celebrate the achievements of women while calling for greater equality.

Women in the United States have a lot of achievements to celebrate–certainly more so than many other countries.  That being said, the United States still has a ways to go with respect to women’s rights and that is most apparent in the employment …

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Patricia Arquette’s Oscar speech highlights unequal pay for women 

Last Sunday, over 36 million people in the U.S. tuned in to watch Hollywood’s biggest annual awards show – the Oscars.  More than just a venue to celebrate film, we know the Oscars as an iconic world stage for celebrity fashion, pop culture, and even, at times, provocative social and political declarations.  

This year, …