5C WEST HAWAII TODAY | SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2015 Perks Muscle In on Pay Raises Less Spent on Raises ... 10% of payroll budgets were devoted to straight salary increases in 1981. 4.3% Straight salary increases as a share of payroll fell this low by 2001. 2.9% They rose this far in 2014, after sinking to 1.8% during the recession. GET MORE FROM West Hawaii Today! As a West Hawaii Today subscriber, you have complimentary access to the e-edition. Log on to hawaiitribune-herald.com and click on the e-edition button to get started today! westhawaiitoday.com | 327-1652 BONUS! Get unlimited access to Star-Advertiser and The Washington Post digital editions. Benefi t available through an agreement with The Washington Post and is subject to change or cancellation at any time without prior notice. Benefi t available to current print subscribers to West Hawaii Today only and is non-transferable. Limit one free Washington Post Digital Premium subscription per person. Additional restrictions may apply. Log on to staradvertiser.com/whtactivate MANAGING YOUR MONEY, WORK AND SUCCESS Copyright © 2015 The New York Times Spending Well EVE EDELHEIT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES DIFFERENT COMPENSATION At Squaremouth, Apple Watches augmented raises of 0.8 percent for 2015. Bubble chairs for breaks at the company. Talking Points Even More Bling Available For That Rolls-Royce These days, just owning a Rolls- Royce or a Bentley is not enough for some people. So automakers are offering custom-tailored cars and limited-production “special edition” sedans. Last month, Rolls-Royce unveiled the Inspired by Fashion edition of its Wraith. It includes leather door panels accented with welting and silk, a steering wheel stitched using an invisible seamless technique from English tailors, and headlights with the Rolls-Royce logo etched into them. Built only upon request, it will cost at least $350,000, depending on options. Drought Good, for Wine Wine production in Washington State has more than doubled in the last decade, and the expansion may be accelerating, researchers and growers say, for an unlikely reason: drought. Grapes require far less water than other crops, and warmer winters in northern climes are creating new farming terrain, ripe for grape cultivation. Since 2010, wine-grape acreage in Washington has increased by 22 percent, to about 50,000 acres, while acreage for other important crops, like potatoes and wheat, has been flat or in decline. Paying More in Hospitals The prices that hospitals ask customers to pay for a series of common procedures increased by more than 10 percent from 2011 to 2013 — more than double the rate of inflation. But the amounts paid by Medicare, the government health care program for the elderly and the disabled, stayed flat, according to federal data. It is the season of spring cleaning, and if you paid more in taxes than you would have liked in April, you may be looking to donate as much of your clothing as possible. Thrift stores run by Goodwill and the Salvation Army are generally happy to see you and your overflowing bags. Still, there are ways to make their lives easier while also toeing the line of deduction aggressiveness. So I took a load of clothing to my local Goodwill in Downtown Brooklyn and watched as one of its experts, Gidget Despiau, picked through every last item. The Goodwill greeters will only hand you a receipt confirming how many bags you brought in and what is inside of them. They want little part in any overly ambitious goals for next year’s tax deductions. They do, however, accept anything and everything. Used underwear is not of use. Socks you have worn are not eligible for resale, though I had a few pairs with the tags still attached. “Neiman Marcus,” Ms. Despiau said, and she was excited initially by my hosiery. Then, she eyeballed the price tag, sized up their garishness and remarked upon the triple markdown. “What does that tell you?” Still, she kept a few pairs. Other items went into a bin with clothes destined for the bythe pound outlet store. Such discernment is necessary if the store is to make its numbers. The daily sales goal of $5,775 is written on the wall of the sorting area; the Downtown Brooklyn location regularly beats it by at least 5 percent. For people who find national operations like Goodwill and the Salvation Army objectionable, most areas have at least one more local operation that will take used clothing. Be wary, however, of other receptacles for used clothing that have popped up in recent years. They may not help any charities at all and are unlikely to provide the sort of receipt that the Internal Revenue Service may ask for. And you’ll need to tell the I.R.S. how much your donations were worth if you are itemizing your deductions. While clothing donations tend not to set off audits, if the agency calls you in for some other reason, it may take the magnifying glass to your noncash contributions. Then, auditors will want to discuss both your valuation and your documentation. The I.R.S. writes its guidance on valuing clothing donations in plain English, but some of the words it uses are unclear. According to Publication 526, the agency wants us to use the fair market value of used clothing, which is whatever price a willing buyer and willing seller might agree to. It adds that this is “usually far less than the price you paid for them.” How often does the unusual happen, though? And how far is fair, anyway? “There are no fixed formulas,” it says. Goodwill has a list online that suggests a range of prices for various items it tends to stock. A free Intuit program and app called “TurboTax ItsDeductible” uses recent eBay pricing as a guide, which may net you better valuations for clothing. In general, you’ll want a dated receipt from the recipient organization, an itemized description of the things you donated and an explanation of how you arrived at the fair market value. TAXES RON LIEBER Yacht-size bonuses for Wall Street big shots and employee-ofthe month plaques for supermarket standouts are nothing new, but companies’ efforts to keep costs down have pushed employers to turn to one-off bonuses and nonmonetary rewards at the expense of annual pay raises. “There is a quiet revolution in compensation,” said Ken Abosch of Aon Hewitt, a human resources company. According to Aon Hewitt’s annual survey on salaried employees’ compensation, the share of payroll budgets devoted to straight salary increases sank to a low of 1.8 percent in the depths of the recession. It dropped to 4.3 percent in 2001, from a high of 10 percent in 1981. It has rebounded modestly since the recession, but still rose to only 2.9 percent in 2014, the survey of 1,064 organizations found. Aon Hewitt started tracking short-term rewards and bonuses — known as variable compensation — in 1988, when they accounted for an average of 3.9 percent of payrolls. Ten years later, that share had more than doubled to 8 percent. Last year, it hit a record 12.7 percent. Experts say the prevalence and types of one-time rewards and perks have spread further down the ranks than ever before. Although rewards for top achievers and signing bonuses to attract talent account for most of the one-shots, they also include companywide amenities and targeted perks, like Visa gift cards. Ninety-one percent of the companies surveyed have at least one broad-based reward program, up from 78 percent in 2005 and 47 percent in 1991. In the economic recovery, stubbornly sluggish wage growth has become a central issue, eroding people’s faith in the American dream, shaping the economic messages of presidential candidates and weighing on the Federal Reserve Bank’s decision of whether to raise interest rates from their near-zero levels. Over the past 12 months, real average hourly earnings have increased by just 2.2 percent. Since 1979, most of the gains in pay have gone to those at the top while, except for brief periods in the 1980s and late 1990s, those in the middle and at the bottom have been losing ground. Several developments help account for wage stagnation: the economy’s globalized and technological nature, which has placed more bargaining power in the hands of employers, and long periods of relatively high unemployment, compounded by waves of layoffs and excessive numbers of discouraged and underemployed workers, leaving some employees fearful to ask for more. The shift in compensation that favors one-shot-only rewards over incremental increases in salary that compound over time also appears to be playing a significant role. Employers like one-shots precisely because they are temporary. They save money over the long run because they don’t lock in raises, giving managers greater control over budgets, particularly during downturns. “It’s so much easier to not give a bonus than to cut someone’s pay,” said Linda Barrington, a labor expert at Cornell University. At Squaremouth, a software company in St. Petersburg, Fla., most employees received an annual raise of 0.8 percent for 2015, just enough to match last year’s rise in consumer prices. But staff members have been treated to other sweeteners like new Apple Watches — preordered with choice of size and color — a $200 “beer” bonus, birthdays off and the installation of a “hangover couch” for midday snoozes. While across-the-board perks can make the workplace more pleasant, others support performance based bonuses. “I personally love suddenly finding an unexpectedly large sum added to a month’s pay,” said Michele Heisler, an associate professor at the University of Michigan. “It is like getting a surprise gift,” she said. WORKING PATRICIA COHEN Companies are keeping costs down by giving out more one-time rewards. SHAKIL ADIL/ASSOCIATED PRESS RUTH FREMSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES Clothing Donations Are Great, but Please Keep the Socks MICHAEL APPLETON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES CLOSE SCRUTINY Gidget Despiau of a Goodwill store in Brooklyn said workers take a critical look at what they put on display in order to meet the daily sales goal of $5,775. ... While Bonuses Grow 3.9% of payrolls were spent on shortterm rewards and bonuses in 1988. 8% Rewards and bonuses had risen to a higher percentage of payroll in 1998. 12.7% The portion of last year’s payrolls spent on short-term rewards.
07a
To see the actual publication please follow the link above