When looking for work, we tend to think about certain key factors. Will the job be something I enjoy doing for many hours per day? Will I get along with my coworkers? What’s the salary or hourly rate?
But we might forget about a simple question that can make or break our financial livelihood: How easy or difficult will it be to get paid by my new employer?
Think about what happens when you aren’t paid accurately or on time. You might have to spend a lot of time going back and forth with your employer’s accounting department. You might not be able to make your rent, or you may need to eat into your savings. In other words, “how you get paid” is far more than an administrative detail, and treating the subject as an afterthought is a mistake.
Several years ago, I worked very hard as a birthday party hostess for a new children’s play center. I earned $11 per hour, but when my employer realized I was receiving up to $100 a day in customer tips, they cut my hourly pay by 50%. I wasn’t able to buy a car as planned that year due to the unexpected loss of income, and from that moment forward, I gave a great deal of attention to pay. What is it going to be, how will I get the money, and how can I ensure I fairly receive it?
The next time you apply to a new employer, here are three things to keep in mind.
What is the pay structure – and is it legal?
This is an especially relevant question if you are thinking of working for a small business or startup. Your new employer should have a plan in place for paying employees in accordance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Fair Labor Standards Act in the U.S. This means that it must:
Procure an Employer Identification Number (EIN)
Ensure new employees file a W-4 form
Schedule pay periods that correspond to IRS tax withholding
Have a payroll administration system
Report payroll taxes regularly
Have policies in place for overtime, sick and vacation time, and other paid time off (PTO)
Understand what constitutes an employee versus an independent contractor and is classifying workers correctly
To determine if your target company is a reputable business, check out online databases such as FEIN Search, Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Guidestar. For a fee, you can gain access to an organization’s EIN and current financial standing.
Note that if you are applying to a large company with many offices or locations, it’s probably safe to say it checks the right boxes. You should, however, confirm the details with the human resources professional managing your hire.
What are employees saying?
When deciding to take any new job, it’s worthwhile to ask how people in your role today feel about their experience. If at all possible, try to meet these workers during your interview process.
The conversation can be casual, but should include questions like: “What’s a normal day like working here?” “Do you feel your manager values and appreciates you?” And on the topic at hand: “Is getting paid simple and reliable?”
A Glassdoor search is useful in uncovering potential red flags because comments are often published by former employees, and therefore likely to be both honest and informative. Alternatively, take a look at your own network to see if you’re connected to someone who works there (or are connected by a degree of separation) to gather additional intel.
It’s not a new concept. In the late 1790s, American statesman Thomas Paine called for a universal payment of £15 per year to all his countrymen in exchange for the right to hold private property.
First suggested over 200 years ago, the idea of universal basic income never quite went away, and in many circles, it’s actually picking up steam.
Progressive Finland is officially the first sovereign nation to put it to the test. Two-thousand Finnish citizens, who were selected randomly from those currently receiving unemployment benefits or an income subsidy, will now receive €560 ($587) a month. Everyone gets the same amount of money whether they work or not. The pilot will run for the next two years, and may eventually expand to include all Finns.
Why the renewed interest in universal basic income now? Stagnant wages since the early aughts is one major reason, as is the declining share of total income earned by workers compared with companies.
In the private sector, though, the attraction is based on the fear that in the near future, many human jobs will be automated or otherwise taken over by machine intelligence. This notion has been gaining traction since 2013, when a paper by Oxford economists Frey and Osborne predicted that nearly 50 percent of modern jobs were at risk of computerization.
For more where this came from, check out my new column on Mashable.
I'll never forget the first time I had to file taxes as a small-business owner. Between the myriad of IRS forms, deductions, payroll and quarterly installments, I was overwhelmed. I quickly learned that the best plan of action was to concentrate on how to file taxes throughout the year, rather than waiting until the precious few days before the early spring deadline.
This month, I spoke to three small-business owners who know a thing or two about how to file taxes. Along with her partner Beth Doane, Kelly Gibbons runs the communications firm Main & Rose in Los Angeles; Nick Pirollo is the co-founder of Philadelphia-based scholarship website Scholly; and Vincenzo Villamena is the owner of tax consultancy Online Taxman in New York City.
Some business owners view taxes as one of the least fun aspects of running a business. Why is it important to know how to file taxes?
Kelly Gibbons: Taxes are definitely an aspect of business ownership on which most people have a horrible perspective. We made a conscious decision to look at taxes as something positive. Filing taxes is a reminder of all the great things we take for granted living in a first-world country with countless opportunities. We want to pay our fair share and the focus should be on just that—paying the amount we should be and honoring why taxes are not a bad thing. It behooves owners to know tax law, to hire experts and to make smart decisions that benefit us now and for the long term.
Nick Pirollo: Taxes are logistically challenging and "giving away" money always hits home. It's for those reasons, however, that doing your taxes properly is an important business focus. I've seen a good number of businesses retain a lot more income by adopting better tax habits. The secondary benefits of proper planning are countless, including being better prepared for audits, seeing issues in your expenses and minimizing inconsistencies in your books.
Vincenzo Villamena: Tax planning is important because it represents an immediate and definitive short-term return of investment in accountant fees. Business owners can make decisions based on real analysis on the tax rates and associated scenarios.
What is your tax preparation process like?
Pirollo: My preparation officially begins in December, but because I don't manage my year-end filing in-house, it is important to manage the relationship with my accountant year round and make sure they are clued in before tax season rolls around.
In December, I round out my books, gather any necessary paperwork and make projections for the remainder of the month in order to form a full picture of the business year. This means I am only making slight adjustments once December's final numbers come in. It also makes the coming year much more manageable, giving me ample time to get any extra cash in place to cover costs.
Villamena: We generally sit down with each client and look through their previous filed returns, examining improvement areas—for example, investment in capex before year-end, retirement plans, making an S-Corp election or declaring year-end bonuses.
Gibbons: We prepare well in advance with respect to our cash flow, and set aside more than we think we will need in order to compensate for higher earnings than what we may expect. This is crucial with a client-based business like ours.
You’ve heard the term, but what on earth does it mean? Let’s start with the basics. A blockchain is a data structure that makes it possible to create a digital ledger of transactions and share it among a distributed network of computers. It uses cryptography to allow each participant on the network to manipulate the ledger in a secure way without the need for a central, often fee-charging authority.
Bitcoin and the mechanics of blockchain
If you are familiar with blockchain technology, it may be because of Bitcoin, the first app built using the platform in 2008. Bitcoin’s main premise is to digitally send payments between any two people or organizations without a third-party financial institution. Every time a transaction is made, it’s recorded on the blockchain ledger and each new block is tied to the prior ones via digital signature. Once a block of data is recorded on the ledger, it’s difficult to change or remove, and in order for someone to add a block to the chain, network members have to first ensure it’s valid.
A few key components underpin blockchain technology. First up is the network, which can vary depending on the organization setting up the blockchain. It might include everyone in the public domain (as in Bitcoin) or an exclusive group of known participants. The computers within each network are called nodes.
Then, there is the consensus mechanism, or the set of rules used to verify each transaction. In the Bitcoin blockchain, for instance, the consensus mechanism is called proof of work. Network participants run algorithms to confirm the digital signatures attached to blocks in order to validate new transactions. Once approved, transactions are packaged into a block. They are then re-distributed to all the nodes, which are responsible for ensuring that all records match.
For his article for the Wall Street JournalCIO Journal blog, writer Steven Norton consulted Guardtime, a company that sells blockchain-based products and services to organizations like Ericsson AB. Guardtime provided this example of a complex blockchain in action:
“Assume an organization has 10 transactions per second. Each of those transactions receives its own digital signature. Using a tree structure, those signatures are combined and given a single digital fingerprint — a unique representation of those transactions at a specific time.”
“Once validated, that fingerprint is stored in a blockchain that all the participants can see. A copy of that ledger is also sent back to each organization to store locally. Those signatures can be continuously verified against what is in the blockchain, giving companies a way to monitor the state and integrity of a particular asset or transaction.”
“Anytime a change to data or an asset is proposed, a new, unique digital fingerprint is created. That fingerprint is sent to each client node for validation. If the fingerprints don’t match, or if the change to the data doesn’t fit with the network’s agreed-upon rules, the transaction may not be validated. This setup means the entire network, rather than a central authority, is responsible for ensuring the validity of each transaction.”
Small businesses are in economic recovery mode, but some might agree with me that it has been slower than anticipated. In an end-of-year survey, Wells Fargo reported that "only 39 percent of small-business owners experienced an increase in company revenues over the past 12 months.
At the same time, 47 percent expected cash flow and revenues to increase in 2016." Given a still-far-from-ideal financial picture, we asked three small-business owners—Fritz Heffinger, founder and president of event marketing firm OutCold in Chicago; Diana Goodwin, founder and CEO of AquaMobile Swim School in Toronto; and Shawn Schulze, CEO of SeniorCare.com in St. Louis, Missouri—what their cash flow management techniques are this year.
Why is cash flow management a critical skill for small-business owners?
Fritz Heffinger: It’s important to learn how your sales go—when your peak times are and when to expect a slowdown. In a perfect world, sales are steady all the time, but any small business knows that is not the case.
Diana Goodwin: Cash flow management is extremely important! You don't want to be stuck in a rut, unable to run a critical marketing campaign because you didn't properly manage your cash. Something like that could cripple your business and impact your sales for the coming year, putting your company in a downward spiral.
Shawn Schulze: When a business has cash on hand and cash reserves, it has much more control. Without available cash, a business relies on debt or new funding sources. Businesses that are operating day by day or have lots of debt are just one unexpected event away from desperation mode. In addition, interest on debt is a costly expense.
How, or where, did you learn to manage your cash flow?
Schulze: After over 10 years in business, I still have a fear of what may happen that could hurt our existing cash flow or require a large, unexpected expense. This fear is great motivation to ensure that we are conservative in our projections, in our expenditures and also in the amount of money we maintain on hand.
At the beginning of every year, I devise a cash flow plan and then set calendar reminders to review our various bank and Paypal accounts every two weeks to see if any money needs to be shifted.
Goodwin: My company AquaMobile is a seasonal business, so I knew right from the outset that cash flow management would be important. From there, I’ve just made sure I’m always aware of our current spending and future cash needs.
Heffinger: I wish I could say I read this book or had someone on staff, but it has been a trial by fire. I have had help from a good friend who works at a large bank, but our business is so unique that it was a risk in the beginning.
For the rest of the interview, head over to the AMEX Open Forum.
My 4-year-old daughter Serena will be 30 in 2041. Assuming that she has a college degree and eight years of work experience, how might she fare in a world dominated by contract workers, fluid teams, human-centered work, persistent pay gaps, blurred work-life boundaries, and biases that have been around since the beginning of time? Well, let’s investigate.
1. INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
Serena was born in 2011, the year the U.S. birth rate dipped to its lowest recorded level. As the U.S. birth rate keeps trending below 2.0 births per woman, that doesn’t mean young women will face less competition for school acceptance and jobs in the coming decades.
Instead of vying with other Americans her age, my daughter will fight for a place among hyper-qualified professionals from around the world. While her generation struggles to support the population of adults over 65—projected to triple by mid-century—it will face a global talent pool from which companies can hire the best people no matter where they're based.
2. CONTINUING GENDER GAPS IN LEADERSHIP
Will my daughter preside over her own company? She probably won't, and yours isn't likely to either—unless current trends make a dramatic turnaround.
According to Judith Warner at the Center for American Progress, women’s presence in top management positions today remains below 9%, and their percentage on all U.S. corporate boards has been stuck in the 12.1–12.3% range over the past decade. A 2014 Babson College study showed that, on average, just 60 female CEOs got VC funding in the years 2011–2013. This is surprising given that women are the majority owners in 36% of all businesses in the U.S.
It’s been estimated that at the current rate of change, it will take until 2085 for women to reach parity with men in leadership roles. That’s too late for Serena.
3. REVOLVING DOORS OF EMPLOYMENT
Rather than heading up her own venture, Serena is far more likely to be a contract worker—a segment of the workforce that's been projected to overtake the single-employer workforce by 2040. And she won’t just have to compete for jobs every few years. She will be in a constant cycle of promoting her services, securing a project, and promoting her services again.
"Businesses will consist of owners, talent assemblers, and contract workers for everything else," the writer Tad Milbourne has argued on Techcrunch. "Platforms will spring up that know what contractors have certain skills, what they’ve done, and whether they’re available. Contractors will get instantly matched with talent assemblers.
For my daughter's generation of working women, networking with these "talent assemblers" will likely become a top priority.
4. SHORT-TERM VIRTUAL TEAMS
In preschool, Serena likes to flit from station to station, playing with a different group of kids every five minutes. That’s good, because in 2040 she'll work on a variety of remote project teams that form and disband quickly after accomplishing a specific business outcome. She will have no physical office outside her home, yet she’ll interact with thousands of professionals of all ages and across many cultures each year.
What will Serena do on these teams? Your guess is as good as mine, but according to futurist Gerd Leonhard, she’d be smart to pursue something related to growing technology segments like data science, artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, deep learning, and robotics.
Or she could pursue a career that makes good use of human skills like imagination, curiosity, understanding, empathy, and social and emotional intelligence—like design, therapy, negotiation, or invention.
What will she want to avoid? "It’s pretty clear than hundreds of millions of jobs that are primarily routine-based, repetitive, and rules-based will increasingly be done by machines," writes Leonhard.
5. AGE-OLD GENDER BIAS
And in the narrowing breadth of roles reserved for people, women are set to continue lagging behind men despite equal educational opportunities. How come? One reason is that "unconscious bias", or the implicit people-preferences we form through socialization, is deeply embedded in the human experience. It starts early, too—research shows that it’s present in children by the age of three or four—and enters the workplace already deeply rooted in each of us.
A recent study by VitalSmarts researchers Joseph Grenny and David Maxwell found that women’s perceived competency drops by 35% and their perceived deserved compensation by $15,000 when they're seen to be assertive or forceful—violating ingrained cultural expectations for women to be caring and nurturing.
This is a problem that’s unlikely to be solved in my daughter's lifetime, even though, according to London Business School professor and The Key author Lynda Gratton, we shouldn’t lose hope. "It’s surprising how quickly societal norms can change," she says. "I see my sons being taught not to make any assumptions about what men and women do—and of course, more young people are now being brought up by working mothers. So in some parts of society, gender bias may be seen as something from the past."
Let's hope so.
6. BETTER WORK-LIFE INTEGRATION
According to the 2014 OECD Better Life Index, when compared to 35 other developed nations, the U.S. ranks as the eighth-worst country for work-life balance. The pressure to conform to standards set by countries like Germany and Denmark is likely to grow. As workforces become less global, top U.S. employers may feel more impelled to compete with foreign companies' perks in order to retain the best talent. So we may well have come a long way on work-life issues within the next 25 years.
On the other hand, future workers will be even more continuously connected to their work through technology than we are today. But by then we may have worked this way long enough that my daughter's generation will be better equipped to manage it.
Lynda Gratton believes that some work-life conflicts may be alleviated by a longer window for childbearing and more involvement from fathers. "Women may have more leeway in terms of sequencing their family and careers, and we will see more see-saw couples in which both partners take turns supporting one another."
All in all, there are likely to be more opportunities than obstacles for professional women in 2040, but there's plenty that we can do right now to make sure of that.
A recent study, The Principal Financial Well-Being Index, found that business owners generally have positive vibes about where they stand financially. Almost half are optimistic about the 2016 economy—and with good reason. Sixty-four percent feel their financials have improved significantly or somewhat from last year, and 74 percent have built a surplus of cash.
I asked three small-business owners—Sarah Jacoby, owner of dance center Studio 9 in Poughkeepsie, New York; Jenne Myers, CEO of nonprofit Chicago Cares in Chicago; and Vick Vaishnavi, CEO of software firm Yottaa in Boston—about their financial preparation for this year, as well as their anticipated results.
In terms of your business, what does financial success mean to you?
Sarah Jacoby: As business owners, we all have our ups and downs throughout the year, but I feel I am successful because, overall, I have maintained a flourishing atmosphere as far as cash flow, employees and financial growth. The studio is debt-free and is solidly in the black.
Jenne Myers: Although we are a nonprofit, it’s important at the end of the day that we’re in the black, not in the red. Our donors want to have confidence in our financial status, which means that we want to have a surplus. We also place a really high importance on having an engaged volunteer and donor base. The more invested they are in our work, the more they feel responsible for our success, and the more willing they are to contribute and advocate to their networks on our behalf.
Vick Vaishnavi: Since Yottaa is in a very high growth market, we measure financial success strictly in terms of maximizing revenue performance. In order for us to do so, we must execute at a very high level across all functional areas of the company.
What are one or two financial goals you’ve set for your business this year?
Myers: Our main goal is to diversify our funding. Unlike most nonprofits, we get about 75 percent of our funding from corporate sponsors. In 2016, we want to continue to diversify our revenue streams, including events, individual giving and grants. While our corporate partners will continue to be key to our success, we want to make sure that we’re more stable and sustainable by having a wide range of funding sources.
Vaishnavi: Our financial goals for 2016 are to grow revenue by 100 percent, significantly increase the annual contract values of our deals and double the headcount for the company.
Jacoby: I would like to open a fourth location to better serve the large Hudson Valley area. Financially, this expansion will include startup costs, daily operations for the first six months and any unforeseeable expenses. I also want to increase my staff and instructor pay and compensation packages.
For the rest of the interview, check out the full article on the AMEX Open Forum.
PMI’s 2015 Earning Power survey reveals that current project management compensation varies widely.
The Project Management Institute’s 2015 Earning Power report, which is based on a survey of more than 26,000 respondents in 34 countries, detailed 12-month salary trends among 15 demographic variables and shares important insights on roles ranging from entry-level project managers to senior executives.
Overall, most participants (72 percent) reported that their total compensation (including salary, bonus and other forms of compensation) increased over the 12 months prior to completing the salary survey, with over one-fourth (27 percent) of respondents reporting increases of at least 5 percent over that time period.
The median annualized salary recorded in this survey, across all countries, roles and experience levels was $81,000 (USD). Approximately 75 percent of respondents earned at least $53,689 (USD), and the upper 25 percent earned at least $110,000 (USD). However, median salary varied greatly depending on a number of key demographic factors including the following:
Country of employment
Number of years of experience in project management
Average size of projects managed, including average project budget and average project team size
Country of Employment
The median salary for someone in the project management profession varied widely from country to country. The country with the highest median salary ($130,000) was Switzerland, whereas the country with the lowest median salary was Egypt ($19,602).
Industries
Project managers in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, mining, consultation, aerospace, engineering, utility, government and IT industries were among the highest paid.
Experience
Although the total number of years of work experience did not appear to impact salary, the stronger correlation was with the number of years a person had worked within the project management profession. The most dramatic increase was seen in Singapore. The median salary ranged from $47,657 for those just starting out in the project management field to $131,972 for those who had been in the field for 20 years or more. This represented an increase of 177 percent from low to high experience in the field.
The difference in median salary was not nearly as striking in China, for example. For those with less than three years’ experience, the median salary was $21,073 compared with $29,178 for those practicing project management for 20 years or more.
Certification
The majority of participants in this study earned the PMP® certification. Those with the certification were paid more than those without in virtually all of the countries. The largest differential was noted in South Africa where PMP holders had a median salary 47 percent higher than those without the certification.
In nearly all countries, median salary steadily increased with PMP tenure. In Taiwan and Saudi Arabia, the median salary of those who had been certified for 10 or more years was more than double those who had been certified for 5 years or fewer.
Two big pieces of salary-related news hit the Internet recently. Credit card processing company Gravity Payments’ CEO was forced to defend his decision to standardize all employee pay to $70K, and the SEC finalized a long-delayed rule forcing businesses to share their “pay ratio,” or how CEO pay compares with that of the average company worker. How might these developments affect business productivity?
$70K Salary Policy Does More Harm Than Good
First up, Dan Price. Thirty year-old Price is the founding CEO of Gravity. He made headlines when he decided to fight income inequality by raising the minimum salary of his 120 employees to $70K. About 70 people got raises and another 30 had their pay doubled instantly. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time.
But, problems were apparent immediately. For one thing, a lot of talented mid-level and senior-level hires quit right away. Entrepreneur’s Steve Tobak can see why: “An entry-level new hire who just clocks in and out is suddenly making almost as much as a veteran supervisor who busted her hump for years.”
“Leveling the playing field all at once as he did breeds resentment and virtually eliminates the merits of meritocracy. You simply can’t raise the minimum salary that high without it having a negative ripple effect throughout the organization.”
From a productivity standpoint, I don’t know that raising people’s salaries when the act has nothing to do with achievement will have the hoped-for effect. Some employees may be motivated to work harder for a CEO who has proved himself to be a nice guy, but those who got jacked up salaries likely have no incentive to push themselves or do more on any given day.
Junior-level employees want to be rewarded, but the purpose of the reward is important. I believe that most people are more satisfied and engaged at work when they are recognized for actual accomplishments. And when they are satisfied and engaged, they are more productive.
If I were a mid-level manager, on the other hand, I think that unconscious negative feelings associated with income fascism would either directly or indirectly decrease my productivity. After all, why should I go out of my way to share my expertise and acquire new expertise on behalf of a company that doesn’t really value it? Someone should do an experiment on this, ideally before any other companies pull the trigger on standardizing pay.
The prospect of negotiation can be frightening. You may be accustomed to treating your goods and services as commodities, where the set price is the set price. Or you may have close relationships with your loyal customers and be reluctant to disturb them. And sometimes the process might feel unnatural and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, negotiation is a part of life in most types of businesses, and your long-view success can depend upon putting these five tactics to work during the sales process.
1. Understand What’s Really Important
In his book Give and Take, Wharton faculty member Adam Grant suggests an approach called rank ordering. Grant’s negotiation research illustrated that participants achieved stronger outcomes when they ranked all their issues in order of importance. The idea is to share your rankings with the other party and compare them so each party walks away with the items that are most critical to them. This process usually involves trade-offs—for instance, a shorter warranty for a reduced cost.
As a small-business owner, the prospect of negotiation can be frightening. You may be accustomed to treating your goods and services as commodities, where the set price is the set price. Or you may have close relationships with your loyal customers and be reluctant to disturb them. And sometimes the process might feel unnatural and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, negotiation is a part of life in most types of businesses, and your long-view success can depend upon putting these five tactics to work during the sales process.
1. Understand What’s Really Important
In his book Give and Take, Wharton faculty member Adam Grant suggests an approach called rank ordering. Grant’s negotiation research illustrated that participants achieved stronger outcomes when they ranked all their issues in order of importance. The idea is to share your rankings with the other party and compare them so each party walks away with the items that are most critical to them. This process usually involves trade-offs—for instance, a shorter warranty for a reduced cost.
2. Hear Your Customer
William Ury, the author of the negotiation books Getting to Yes and Getting Past No, recommends listening carefully to your customer, acknowledging their needs and agreeing whenever possible. Should the customer ask for something extra, probe sincerely. Why is this necessary? Instead of pushing your agenda, imagine that you are a mediator. Come back with an alternative arrangement (Ury calls this the golden bridge) that incorporates their ideas and shows that you understand their position.
3. Throw Out Your Dream Price
If a customer asks you how much a deal will cost, consider starting high. Why? If your customer balks, it can be easier to negotiate down than to negotiate up. In her book The Heart and Mind of the Negotiator, Northwestern professor Leigh Thompson calls this the anchoring effect. Essentially, the first offer is an anchor that establishes a set point for the rest of the negotiation. The number that you ultimately settle on will likely be somewhere within the anchor’s general vicinity.
For more where this came from, head over to the AMEX Open Forum.
