Career Showdown: New York Fans vs. New England Fans

Career Advantage: New York Battles New England

By Bridget Quigg, PayScale.com

How about an Human Resources showdown on Feb. 5, instead of the gridiron battle? What would happen if you pitted New York versus New England based upon career-enhancing factors like shorter commute time, higher pay and lower work stress? You'd get PayScale's "Fan Face-Off XLVI: Which Team's Fans Have the Career Advantage?"

Canadian Cities Battle for Winning Wages

From Vancouver to Montreal: PayScale Covers Canadian Cities’ Wage Trends

By Bridget Quigg, PayScale.com

The next time a Vancouver Canuck fan jabs a Montreal Hab supporter, the Hab can come back with, “Well, our pay is growing faster than yours!” Is it? Yes, according to PayScale.com. The PayScale Index now includes trends for six Canadian metros and if you look at the ranking, Montreal is ahead of Vancouver by 0.4 percent in the last 12 months. Can you guess which town is number one?

Salaried Employees Work Hours: Laws from FLSA

Exempt Employees and Rules Requiring Specified Hours

You probably are aware that exempt employees generally should be paid the same salary regardless of the number of hours they work or the quantity of work they produce. But, can you require them to work a certain schedule and track their hours?

Simplified Compensation Software - PayScale’s 2012 Winter Release

Your Life Is Now Officially Easier

The product team here at PayScale just released its latest version of our compensation planning software, PayScale Insight. We want you to know about the improvements we've made because they were inspired by people like you, the hard working HR professionals and business owners out there who face the task of determining base salaries, raises, bonuses and countless other major compensation-related decisions every day.We hope you'll find that the newest Insight features make sense to you and provide the elusive "helping hand" you've been waiting for.

How to Determine New Employees' Annual Bonuses

When to Give an Annual Bonus to a New Employee

Chances are, you have recently been tasked with the job of determining (or at least helping to determine) what your employees’ end-of-year bonuses should be. With your long-term employees, you've have had some historical practices, as well as a, hopefully, comprehensive performance review to rely on to help you. But what do you do with employees who haven’t been with the company for a full year, including those who may have joined very recently? While there are no hard and fast rules, here are some approaches for you to ponder.

Salary Negotiation Tips for Employers

How to Respond to a Request for a Raise

It’s that time of year again: the annual salary budget has been set, performance evaluations are done, and suddenly managers are hiding behind closed doors, anxiously dreading “the talk.” The annual compensation conversation doesn’t need to be a daunting, mysterious process, either for managers or the staff they supervise.

Wages Trend Up to Finish 2011 Ahead

Rising Wages Signal Shift in Q4 2011

By Bridget Quigg, PayScale.com

PayScale released its results for The PayScale Index for Q4 of 2011 and you may be surprised to find out where workers' wages went in 2011. They are up across the board for the first time in a long time. While certain skills sets were in higher demand and some cities stayed in a slump, in general, earnings grew somewhat for the majority of workers by year-end 2011.

Best Stories of the Year

A Look Back: Top Stories of 2011

By Bridget Quigg, PayScale.com

As we head into 2012, HR leaders and business owners can take heart in the more positive unemployment news and the (spoiler alert) optimistic, soon-to-be-released Q4 2011 results for The PayScale Index. The economy made forward progress in 2011. What was on our readers' minds and what were the favorite stories and topics here on Compensation Today? The following list highlights the hottest, not-to-be-missed posts of 2011.