Nouran Murad

Executive Pay can be seen in a different light by many people depending on their personal values and views. I personally find executive pay to be appropriate. As executives climb the corporate ladder, they take on numerous responsibilities that other employees do not. I think all employees should be compensated based on the weight of the responsibilities they carry. High executives, such as CEOs, carry large amounts of stress on their shoulders and intense amounts of work to be done by deadlines in order to see their companies survive and thrive. The PBS segment on “Executive Pay” revealed examples of large pay gaps that I disagreed with. Based on the pay structures we did in teams, I also think that although executives deserve higher pay due to higher responsibility, the pay gap should not be so large that other employees with great responsibilities as well are paid as less than. Overall, despite the differences in pay I think there should be fairness as well.

The rise in executive compensation is due to many factors. One factor being market competitiveness. Companies know that without a qualified and driven CEO, they will struggle to meet their competitors. By paying executives more than their competitors, they will be able to hire and retain said CEOs. However, this makes other competitors increase their pay and it becomes a cycle. Now, executive pay has skyrocketed heavily which has widened pay gaps everywhere. Another reason is due to executive positions being seen as the most important, ultimately undermining other employees and the important work they do. I think changes should be implemented to these factors.

Firstly, I think that the pay gap should be lessened, whether other employees receive a pay raise or high executives take a pay cut to make this adjustment. Found in our lectures, we learn that compensation is related to motivation. If other employees learn that they are making such a significant difference in pay to executives, they may become less motivated. Employees want to feel valued and want that to be reflected in their compensation. Rather than having overall pay increases because of title, the increases should come due to responsibilities and performance. By doing so, employees will feel happier with company morale, have an increase in motivation, and will be more willing to take on responsibility if they are happy and content with their position and pay.

While we were discussing compensation packages and benefits, I realized just how important it is that you have a top three pick of them. Going into the business world means busy workdays and a lot of mental effort. I want to make sure that when retirement rolls around, I have good benefits. I have always figured that my top three benefits would be a 401(k), health insurance, and paid time off. However, after our class discussion, I realized just how important it is to have more to those three. For a 401(k), matching is important to maximize the benefit of having one. Health insurance is a given for most people, at least I would assume. Health insurance is a necessity because you never know what might happen. Health issues can arise out of nowhere and it is great to know that you have health insurance just in case. As for paid time off, this would include any type of time off: sick days, vacation days, emergency leave, family/maternity leave, etc. Having the ability to know that my job will give me days off with pay when in situations I need it is a comforting thing. I think that if I couldn’t get these benefits, I would reconsider taking the job as they are extremely important to me. I never considered the importance of also having vision and dental insurance, but since I thankfully haven’t had issues with either, I don’t think they are necessarily important to have right now. Therefore, these are benefits I am most likely to eliminate at this moment in time. Looking into a few jobs, I noticed that some offer life or disability insurance, tuition reimbursement, loans, or even childcare. To me, these are not my top concern right now. In the future, life insurance or childcare might be more important. However, as a recent graduate in the workforce, I would most likely eliminate these for now. Based on class discussion, this seemed to be the case for many of us. Also, some companies offer these benefits and might be good to have anyway so that we can utilize them when we need them in the future. 

Citation: 

https://canvas.oregonstate.edu/courses/1843697/pages/week-7-learning-materials?module_item_id=21647234

Everyone has their own standards and expectations when it comes to accepting or denying a job offer. Some people base their standards around compensation, others base it around company culture or location. In this post, I will be describing a time when someone’s standards and expectations were, in fact, based on compensation. Being in college, we are all living away from home. So, when we are looking into jobs, relocating doesn’t seem too bad. However, I think we all have some idea of where we hope to start our careers. A friend of mine was in that position. She had planned to start her career in Eastern Washington and working as a Financial Analyst. During her job search, she came across a posting to be a Client Service Associate for a company that is in a smaller town. It was not the ideal job at first, but once the interview took place there was no way she could refuse. The job offered great pay, full benefits that the company pays for, and flexible hours with weekends off. Each of these offers were what she was hoping for, and she could not refuse this offer. It wasn’t the job title she initially wanted, but she came to realize it was a great fit for her. Compensation motivated her to take the offer because it was everything she wanted and was hoping for. McClelland’s Achievement Motivation follows the needs for achievement, power, and affiliation. This job offered each motivation. As this job was an undeniable offer for her, it may not be for someone else because of the location. In the end, we all have our preferences. All undeniable offers can look different, but at the end of the day, they are undeniable for a reason.