Searching Compensation on page 161

This year's findings reveal three dominant goals for leaders as they shape the future of rewards programs in 2026: benefits optimization, compensation structure and market competitiveness and pay equity, transparency and fairness.

., (john.kilgour@csueastbay.edu) is a professor emeritus in the Department of Management at California State University, East Bay, where he taught compensation and benefits and related courses for 33 years.

Managing payments of overseas compensation is a complex, costly and inefficient process that involves accounting for several local tax codes, processing complex sets of forms, adjusting for exchange rate volatility, and completing the validations across several financial intermediaries.

., ( john.kilgour@csueastbay.edu) is a professor emeritus in the Department of Management at California State University, East Bay, where he taught compensation and benefits and related courses for 33 years.

Holding everything constant, ignoring state and local income taxes and other taxes such as paying into unemployment or worker’s compensation funds, and assuming $40,000 in compensation as in Veliotis and Balsam (2022), the benefit to a company of independent contractor status would be the after-tax savings of the employer portion of the Social Security and Medicare taxes, which is $2,417 (see Table 1).

Editor’s Note: Additional Content For more information and resources related to this article see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics: Workforce Engagement ;Employee Experience ; FREE Newsletter FREE E-newsletter Subscribe to Workspan Weekly for news on trends and compliance in Total Rewards, compensation and benefits.

Editor’s Note: Additional Content For more information and resources related to this article see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics: Equitable and Diverse Workplaces ; FREE Newsletter FREE E-newsletter Subscribe to Workspan Weekly for news on trends and compliance in Total Rewards, compensation and benefits.

.; Editor’s Note: Additional Content For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics: ;Employee Benefits; ;Equitable and Diverse Workplaces; ;Finance and Budgeting; ;Well-Being; #1 Total Rewards & Comp Newsletter Subscribe to Workspan Weekly and always get the latest news on compensation and Total Rewards delivered directly to you.

Access bonus Workspan Daily Plus+ content on this subject: ;Seeing the Unseen: Identifying Gender Bias in Employee Recognition; “While compensation and benefits are foundational to a total rewards strategy, if employees do not feel recognized and appreciated for their efforts, it will diminish the employee experience, negatively impacting work performance, retention and well-being,” said Kathleen Schulz, a vice president and global innovation leader at Gallagher.

.; Editor’s Note: Additional Content For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics: ;Employee Benefits; ;Finance and Budgeting; ;Organizational Performance; ;Total Rewards; #1 Total Rewards & Comp Newsletter Subscribe to Workspan Weekly and always get the latest news on compensation and Total Rewards delivered directly to you.