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Latest employee compensation articles

Read our latest articles and features on employee compensation.
Displaying 1-40 of 40 results
A person holding a tablet device displaying various graphs
How is AI transforming roles in industry?
  • Article
  • 08 Apr 2026
  • ICAEW Insights
Artificial intelligence is no longer a future concept in accountancy. It’s already rapidly reshaping how finance teams operate and hire - but can the profession keep up?
Two people looking at the laptop having a conversation
Five HR elements that shouldn't be overlooked during due diligence
  • Article
  • 10 Mar 2026
  • ICAEW Insights
HR due diligence is more than just liabilities – it’s about factors relating to culture and leadership, and the risks that might arise from them.
Chart of the week: Real average pay in the UK
  • Article
  • 20 Feb 2026
  • ICAEW Insights
Our chart this week illustrates how UK average total pay fell by 0.2% in real terms over the 12 months to December 2025, following much stronger growth in the previous two years.
A pair of hands holding 3 blocks showing compliance symbols
FRC Wates Principles report: six lessons for preparers
  • Article
  • 11 Dec 2025
  • ICAEW Insights
The FRC’s latest insights report on Wates Principles reporting highlights several ways that preparers can improve disclosures.
A pair of hands holding 3 blocks showing compliance symbols
The case for high CEO pay is magical thinking
  • Article
  • 23 Apr 2025
  • ICAEW Insights
A more positive view among corporates and investors of blockbusting CEO pay is based on a flawed prospectus, warns a leading management expert.
5 multi racial hands placed down on table
Preparing for ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting
  • Article
  • 16 Apr 2025
  • ICAEW Insights
The movement towards potential legislation for ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting is a progressive step in promoting workplace equality. But what should employers be doing now to prepare?
A pair of hands holding 3 blocks showing compliance symbols
How a CEO’s pay package influences corporate culture
  • Article
  • 15 Apr 2025
  • ICAEW Insights
The composition of a CEO’s pay deal can have a direct effect on how a company behaves. Aligning remuneration with corporate operations is key.
5 multi racial hands placed down on table
City watchdogs drop new diversity and inclusion rules for firms
  • Article
  • 02 Apr 2025
  • ICAEW Insights
FCA and Bank of England’s PRA join retreat from efforts to help underrepresented groups, citing regulatory burdens.
A female sitting at her desk with laptop open while writing on a piece of paper
Employment Rights Bill – what proposed changes mean for you
  • Article
  • 19 Mar 2025
  • ICAEW Insights
As the Employment Rights Bill continues its passage through parliament, we look at what the proposed changes mean for business.
5 multi racial hands placed down on table
Gender pay gaps: the methodology minefield
  • Article
  • 20 Jan 2025
  • ICAEW Insights
From the Employment Rights Bill to impending EU Pay Transparency Directive, what are the challenges facing organisations as efforts to tackle gender equity ramp up?
Draft legislation published for some Spring Budget 2024 measures
  • Article
  • 18 Mar 2024
  • ICAEW Insights
The Spring Finance Bill contains legislation which increases the thresholds for the high income child benefit charge and abolishes multiple dwellings relief for SDLT.
Significant changes to high income child benefit charge
  • Article
  • 06 Mar 2024
  • ICAEW Insights
Child benefit will be recovered based on household income, the Chancellor has announced. This will challenge HMRC’s limited resources as it will have to collect additional data and change its systems and processes.
Flexible working top priority for job seekers
  • Article
  • 25 Jan 2024
  • ICAEW Insights
Employers need to offer more than pay rises to attract finance and accounting professionals, latest research shows.
Executive pay rises amid cost-of-living crisis
  • Article
  • 31 Aug 2023
  • ICAEW Insights
Average CEO pay is now 118 times that of the average UK worker, compared with 108 times in 2021 and 79 times in 2020.
Have your say: HMRC consultation on employee ownership trusts and employee benefit trusts
  • Article
  • 01 Aug 2023
  • ICAEW
Reforms to the tax treatment of EOTs and EBTs proposed in the paper are intended to focus the rules more effectively on the policy objectives of rewarding employees and encouraging more employee engagement. Another objective is to prevent tax advantages being obtained through the use of these trusts outside their intended purposes.
Legislation Day 2023: R&D, pensions and some unexpected announcements
  • Article
  • 18 Jul 2023
  • ICAEW
While a lot of the material published on 18 July was expected, there were some surprise announcements including planned administrative changes to the high income child benefit charge.
Small steps in inclusion create meaningful change
  • Article
  • 15 Jun 2023
  • ICAEW Insights
DE&I has been talked about for many years – but how do you enact it in your organisation? Laura Murphy explains why accounting firms need partners who are committed to meaningful action.
Hefty executive payouts come under the spotlight
  • Article
  • 05 Apr 2023
  • ICAEW Insights
As we await the verdict of the lawsuit challenging a $56bn pay package from Tesla to Elon Musk by aggrieved shareholders of the carmaker, is enormous executive remuneration really necessary – or indeed ethical – in today’s market?
Public sector finances return to red
  • Article
  • 21 Mar 2023
  • ICAEW Insights
February fiscal deficit hits £17bn, while the cumulative deficit for 11 months of £132bn doesn’t include backdated public sector pay awards.
Lack of transparency thwarts efforts to close pay gaps
  • Article
  • 17 Mar 2023
  • ICAEW Insights
Financial services are among the least likely to publish salary data, despite moves toward encouraging greater pay transparency.
UK executive pay increasingly linked to ESG targets
  • Article
  • 17 Jan 2023
  • ICAEW Insights
The UK’s top companies are increasingly including ESG corporate goals in executive pay plans, suggesting investor pressure for greater ESG disclosure is taking effect, new research shows.
Cost-effective solutions for attracting and retaining talent
  • Article
  • 26 Oct 2022
  • ICAEW Insights
Forget traditional pay rises, organisations have a range of far more thoughtful tools at their disposal to show that they are great to work for.
Employers: check flexible benefit packages are tax compliant
  • Article
  • 28 Jun 2022
  • ICAEW
Flexible benefit packages can offer tax and NIC advantages. They can simplify administration, as well as making the benefit package more attractive to employees. However, ICAEW’s Tax Faculty warns that the underlying tax rules should not be overlooked.
Social mobility: do we need a class pay gap?
  • Article
  • 23 Feb 2022
  • ICAEW Insights
Class pay gaps within your business are an important indicator of social inequality. Reporting them is essential if you’re serious about ensuring socioeconomic diversity at all levels
Ethnicity Pay Gap reporting should be mandatory, signal MPs
  • Article
  • 08 Feb 2022
  • ICAEW Insights
In a new report, the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee calls on the UK government to introduce legislation that would require large companies to publish their ethnicity pay gap data.
War for talent prompts professional salary hikes of up to 25%
  • Article
  • 18 Jan 2022
  • ICAEW Insights
ACA accountants set for bumper pay increases as companies grapple to hold onto top talent, new survey finds
Exclusive Salary survey 2021
  • Article
  • 16 Nov 2021
  • Business and Management Faculty
  • Business and Management
As the nation recovers from the financial impact of the pandemic, what shape does the accounting profession find itself in? A fairly healthy one, according to the latest salary surveys – with talented candidates having the whip hand when it comes to dictating terms, as Nina Bryant discovers
Gender Pay Gap and the accountancy profession: time for a rethink?
  • Article
  • 13 Oct 2021
  • ICAEW Insights
Figures from the latest gender pay gap report show a narrowing in some sectors, but little overall change from previous years. How has the accountancy profession fared when it comes to closing the gap?
87 of FTSE 100 have not yet revealed ethnicity pay gaps
  • Article
  • 12 Oct 2021
  • ICAEW Insights
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has revealed that almost 90% of FTSE 100 employers have yet to declare their ethnicity pay gap figures, hampering a move towards more equal pay.
Blurred businesspeople walking outdoors
PwC Chair backs ‘back to the office’ call to close socio-economic pay gaps
  • Article
  • 04 Oct 2021
  • ICAEW Insights
Lockdowns may have forced a monumental shift in working practices and made homeworking the norm for many, but as restrictions ease PwC UK Chairman Kevin Ellis has stressed the importance of encouraging young accountants to return to the office, or risk hindering their learning and development and the profession’s attempts to close socio-economic pay gaps.
Salary rises drive benefits packages rethink
  • Article
  • 30 Sep 2021
  • ICAEW Insights
Knowing what to pay finance professionals can be a minefield at the best of times, but with the current combination of skills shortages and reduced candidate availability pushing up salaries by as much as 10%, employers are forced to be more creative in the packages they offer, recruitment experts are warning.
Accounting firms target socio-economic pay gaps
  • Article
  • 20 Sep 2021
  • ICAEW Insights
ICAEW has hailed the recent publication of socio-economic data by two Big Four firms as ‘a step in the right direction’ but highlighted that data must be used effectively to bring about positive change.
IFRS Standards: a new approach to disclosures
  • Article
  • 07 Jul 2021
  • ICAEW Insights
The IASB is calling for comments on a proposed new approach to developing disclosure requirements in IFRS Standards and proposed amendments to the standards on fair value measurement and employee benefits that were developed applying that approach.
CJRS - is an employee receiving fixed or variable pay?
  • Article
  • 11 May 2021
Whether an employee has fixed or variable pay is a key concept for calculating amounts that can be claimed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The Tax Faculty explain that the classification of some employees is essentially the employer’s choice.
European Commission tables binding pay transparency measures
  • Article
  • 05 Mar 2021
  • ICAEW Insights
8 March 2021: The right to equal pay for work of equal value is a founding principle of the EU, but one seldom implemented or enforced in full. With the EU gender pay gap currently over 14%, new legislative proposals seek to remedy this through pay transparency and improved enforcement mechanisms.
More guidance for furloughed directors on annual payrolls
  • Article
  • 29 Jan 2021
  • ICAEW
29 January: ICAEW’s Tax Faculty highlights updated HMRC guidance confirming that directors paid annually and claiming grants under the third version of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme must align salary payments with claims.
Salary survey 2020
  • Article
  • 14 Oct 2020
  • Business and Management Faculty
  • Business and Management
As 2020 began, Brexit was the great unknown, the surrounding uncertainty permeating all areas of business – and there’s no doubt that included discussions about remuneration. We take a look at the highs and lows of salaries in the UK accountancy world
Older workers take front line in ‘war for talent’
  • Article
  • 17 Mar 2020
  • ICAEW Insights
Diversity and inclusion are high on the agenda for all businesses keen to attract and retain talent. But are firms overlooking the value of older workers in this mix? And is there a case for mandatory age profile reporting, similar to the gender pay gap requirements?
Diverse workplace
Accountancy firms push for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting
  • Article
  • 01 Mar 2019
  • Jessica Fino
  • Economia
EY, KPMG and Deloitte are among 15 of the biggest UK companies calling for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting among businesses with more than 250 staff
Pay-for-performance pitfalls
  • Article
  • 16 Nov 2010
  • Wim Van der Stede
  • Business and Management
PFP is an incentive scheme in which employees receive extra, performance-dependent compensation for their work if they reach certain performance targets.
Displaying 1-40 of 40 results