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Hartstein said that granting various types of benefits, equity, bonuses or other compensation plans may create opportunities to also protect the organization’s interests in these areas, or make changes to existing agreements to keep up with legal changes.

Workspan Daily article;Talent Marketplaces: Creating Opportunities for Career Progression , Workspan Daily article;Leveraging Competitive Compensation to Retain Top Talent , Workspan Daily article;Culture May Be the Antidote to Your Toxic Work Environment , Workspan Daily article; Managing rapid business growth is arguably easier today than it has ever been.

Now in its 48 th year, the 136-page report provides CEOs, Chief Financial Officers and HR professionals with robust, year-over-year data to design competitive compensation plans and Total Rewards strategies that attract and retain high-performing employees.

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.

., ( 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).

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It is also ideal for HR generalists or compensation specialists with limited benefits compliance knowledge who wish to expand their skill set.

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.