Latest news with #employeecompensation
Entrepreneur
2 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Personally Reviews Staff Bonuses
Nvidia's CEO was recently asked about the rumors of "a secret pool of options" that he "randomly" gives to high-performing employees. Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang is busy running the world's most valuable company. But he still has time to review payroll. On a recent panel episode of "The All-In Podcast," Huang was asked about the rumors of a secret pool of options that he doles out to employees. "If somebody does a great job, you drop a bunch of RSUs on top of them, and you have this little bag of options you carry around. Is that true?" one of the hosts asked. (RSUs, or restricted stock units, are a form of employee compensation, usually performance-based, and issued through a vesting plan and distribution schedule.) "That's nuts," Huang responded. "Yeah, I'm carrying in my pocket right now." Related: Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang Says He's 'Created More Billionaires' Than Anyone Else — Adding Two More This Week Although Huang denied that's how it goes down at Nvidia HQ, he did offer more insight into his day-to-day. "So listen, so this is what happens," Huang explained. "I review everybody's compensation up to this day. At the end of every cycle, when they present it, and they send me everybody's recommended comp. I go through the whole company." Jensen Huang, Co-Founder and CEO of Nvidia, speaks onstage at the All-In and Hill & Valley Forum "Winning The AI Race" at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on July 23, 2025, in Washington, Hill & Valley Forum Of course, he uses machine learning to make it faster. "I've got my methods of doing that, and I use machine learning," Huang said. "I do all kinds of technology, and I sort through all 42,000 employees, and 100% of the time I increase the company's spend on [operational expenditures]." Related: AI Will Create More Millionaires in the Next 5 Years Than the Internet Did in 2 Decades, According to Nvidia's CEO Nvidia has at least six billionaires working there, including longtime directors and executives, per Bloomberg. It's also full of "semi-retired" millionaires who still clock into the office daily. In the interview, Huang also said that AI will mint more millionaires in the next five years than the Internet did in two decades. In July, the chip giant became the first ever company to cross a market value of $4 trillion. It currently sits at $4.477 trillion. "If you take care of people," Huang said, "everything else takes care of itself." Join top CEOs, founders, and operators at the Level Up conference to unlock strategies for scaling your business, boosting revenue, and building sustainable success.
Yahoo
02-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'Dave Ramsey' Caller Asks If It's Appropriate To 'Dig Into' An Employee's Personal Finances To Decide Their Pay, And It Gets Complicated Fast
A business owner who recently called into 'The Ramsey Show' found himself in a tricky spot: he wanted to know if it was okay to ask an employee about their personal finances in order to 'dig into it' to decide how much to pay them. The answer, unsurprisingly, was layered. The caller, Joe, from San Diego, explained that he had taken over another business owner's book of business in exchange for offering that person a job. 'We had a document drafted that pretty much gave us the book of business in exchange for their employment guaranteed for six months,' Joe said. The acquisition helped Joe's business grow from $300,000 to over $1 million in revenue. Don't Miss: Maximize saving for your retirement and cut down on taxes: Named a TIME Best Invention and Backed by 5,000+ Users, Kara's Air-to-Water Pod Cuts Plastic and Costs — However, the employee he took on had run the original business into the ground. Joe described issues ranging from unpaid taxes to a lack of proper insurance coverage. 'He was overpaying himself, taking on debt they didn't need,' Joe said, adding that the employee hadn't paid taxes in three years and owed more than $20,000. Despite all this, Joe wanted to be generous. 'I'm weaning them off being used to be able to live frivolously,' he admitted. But Ramsey co-host George Kamel stepped in with a clear boundary: 'At Ramsey, we never look at someone's personal finances to figure out how much we're going to pay them.' Trending: GoSun's Breakthrough Rooftop EV Charger Already Has 2,000+ Units Reserved — Kamel said the only reason to ask for a budget in the hiring process is to make sure someone can actually live on the salary being offered. It's not about tailoring pay to match someone's debt. 'We don't do it to say, well, they need $10,000 to live, let's pay them $10,000 a month,' he explained. Co-host Ken Coleman jumped in to say: 'You already have a pretty good idea about what's a healthy number, and anything above that is you doing charitable work.' Joe estimated that the going market rate to run a branch like this is around $75,000 to $80,000. At most, $90,000. Coleman pressed him: 'You can't justify a nickel beyond that, true or false?' Joe replied, 'That's true.' Coleman also made it clear that exceeding that amount would only result in problems. 'If you pay him any more than the number you just gave us and he doesn't make any changes at all... you become resentful,' he hosts advised Joe to make a clean offer just like he would to any other candidate. 'Treat him like I would any other person who is applying for this job. Give him that dignity,' Kamel said. If the employee turns down the offer or becomes entitled, that might be a sign it's time to hire someone else. 'In all honesty, business numbers, I'd rather hire someone else, train them,' Joe admitted by the end. Coleman closed with this reminder: 'Be careful trying to be kind that we don't make bad business decisions on a personal decision.' Read Next: Many are using retirement income calculators to check if they're on pace —Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report This article 'Dave Ramsey' Caller Asks If It's Appropriate To 'Dig Into' An Employee's Personal Finances To Decide Their Pay, And It Gets Complicated Fast originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Skift
13-05-2025
- Business
- Skift
CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratios Top 500:1 at Major Hotel and Travel Companies
Many companies have said there's no standard methodology for determining the ratio for CEO-to-median employee pay, which makes direct comparisons tricky. Rank-and-file employees at some of the United States' biggest hotel brands should expect to earn one dollar for around every $500 in compensation their CEO makes. That's according to a Skift analysis of new filings by publicly traded travel and tourism companies that detail pay ratios between chief executives and median earners. Hilton Worldwide Holdings (577:1), Las Vegas Sands (515:1), and Marriott International (475:1) reported the widest hotel and lodging industry gaps between the CEO and median employee, SEC filings indicate. At Marriott, for example, CEO Anthony Capuano earned more than $21.9 million in total compensation during 2024, while a median employee earned about $42,000, according to the company's proxy statement. 'The pay ratio could vary from year to year depending on factors such as annual incentive plan payouts and compensation decisions affecting the CEO and median employee,' Marriott said in a statement to Skift. At Hilton, CEO Christopher Nassetta earned nearly $28 million in total compensation during 2024, while a median employee earned about $48,500, according to the company's most recent proxy statement. (CEO pay is calculated in different ways. By another measure, Skift recently reported that Nassetta was awarded nearly $59 million last year.) 'Hilton offers competitive pay and benefits for all our team members and is proud of our exceptional workplace culture that has been repeatedly named among the world's best places to work and supports the professional growth of nearly a half a million team members around the world,' Hilton said in a statement to Skift. 'Hilton's CEO pay is directly tied to company performance and is competitively positioned versus our peers based on a rigorous annual benchmarking exercise conducted by the board of directors' independent compensation consultant.' Las Vegas Sands did not respond to requests for comment. Hyatt Hotels Corporation (351:1), Wynn Resorts (334:1), and MGM Resorts (332:1) reported narrower CEO-to-median pay ratios. The median pay at Wynn ($47,748) is slightly higher than that of MGM Resorts ($47,607) and Hyatt ($47,192). Airline and Cruise Pay Among airlines, United Airlines (380:1) and Delta Air Lines (258:1) led the pack in airline CEO-to-median pay gaps, according to SEC filings. United CEO Scott Kirby's compensation of more than $33.9 million in 2024 'reflects United's extraordinary success and our turnaround from the depths of the Covid travel downturn,' United told Skift in a statement. 'His compensation increase is tied directly to specific operational and financial goals. Since 2021, United has invested more than $32 billion worldwide in modern infrastructure, cutting edge technology and nearly $10 billion alone for employee raises.' Delta did not respond to a request for comment. Following United and Delta are American Airlines (191:1), Alaska Airlines (119.6:1), Southwest Airlines (115.1:1), and JetBlue Airways (81:1). Delta's median pay in 2024 led its American competitors at $105,269, followed by Southwest ($91,442), United ($89,197), JetBlue ($82,624), American ($81,744) and Alaska ($72,410), according to SEC filings. Carnival Corp. reported a 1,381:1 ratio — but explained that the seemingly low median wage of its employees ($16,834) is not an annualized figure and 'excludes any cash gratuities paid directly to the employee by guests,' while also excluding 'room and meals, transportation to and from the ship, and medical care, which are provided to our ship-based employees without charge.' Royal Caribbean Reported a 1,037:1 CEO-to-median pay ratio, while Norwegian Cruise Lines reported a 550:1 ratio. Calculating CEO-to-Median Employee Pay The CEO-to-median employee pay ratio is a relatively new calculation for publicly traded companies, a product of the post-Great Recession Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The SEC adopted the rule in 2015, and companies began reporting it in 2018. Many companies note that there's no standard methodology for determining the ratio, making direct comparisons tricky. Among them: Booking Holdings, a company whose brands include Priceline, Kayak, Cheapflights, and OpenTable, reported a 466:1 ratio and $96,228 median pay. "The pay ratio reported by other companies may not be comparable to ours because SEC rules for identifying the median employee and calculating the pay ratio allow companies to use different methodologies, apply certain exclusions, and make reasonable estimates and assumptions that reflect their compensation practices,' Booking Holdings wrote. Airbnb's Reported Pay Airbnb reported the lowest CEO pay ratio among major, publicly traded travel industry companies, with CEO Brian Chesky receiving less compensation in 2024 — $186,326 — than the median employee, who received $271,657. But Airbnb is an outlier because it has a unique executive compensation plan among its competitors. In 2020, Chesky received a stock-heavy 10-year pay package that could earn him at least $1 billion by early next decade but an annual base salary of just $1. In other words: Chesky is still primed to make a massive amount of money, even if it's not reflected in a standard CEO-to-median employee pay ratio calculation. 'The CEO pay ratio does not include the November 2020 equity award to Mr. Chesky that was intended to take the place of ten years of our CEO's compensation,' Airbnb acknowledged in an April 25 financial filing with the SEC. In its most recent proxy statement, Airbnb also stated: 'We are committed to the principle of pay equity and seek to be a leader on this front … We want executives to come and stay with Airbnb because of our mission. However, we recognize that compensation needs to be compelling and competitive to attract and retain the talent necessary to meet our objectives.' Other notable companies with relatively tight CEO pay ratios include Expedia Group (224:1), travel technology company Sabre Corp. (155:1), TripAdvisor (72:1), and Host Hotels & Resorts (63:1), which operates a real estate investment trust and tends to employ a larger proportion of higher wage earners relative to other hotel companies.
