Week 5d22 last

Discussion Questions 15-1. This chapter discusses four important issues that will shape compensation

professionals’ work for years to come. Which one of these issues stands to create the greatest uncertainty for compensation professionals? Explain your answer.

15-2. Discuss at least one advantage and one disadvantage of increasing the minimum wage. Consider this action’s impact on the company.

15-3. Discuss at least one advantage and disadvantage of raising the pay level to qualify more employees for overtime pay protection. Consider this action’s impact on the company.

15-4. Explain why wages are increasing in China, and discuss how this trend will influence a company’s choice to conduct business there.

15-5. Discuss how companies stand to benefit from offering flexible benefit plans.

CASE Benefits for Part-Time Workers

An additional Supplemental Case can be found on MyManagementLab.

With just under 100 employees, Jackson, Smith, and Henderson CPA (JSH) is considered one of the fastest-growing certified public accounting (CPA) firms in the area. Alan Jones was recently hired as the director of human resources and has many challenges ahead of him as he works to formalize the human resource practices of the firm.

As the benefit open enrollment period is approaching quickly, his first job is to review the benefit offerings of the firm to ensure that JSH is competitive with other area firms. Beyond the legally required benefits, the firm currently offers a fairly basic benefit package including health care insurance, a 401(k) plan, vacation days, and sick days.

Currently, all employees are full-time, and all employees are eligible for benefits. However, two employees have recently requested part-time schedules. Further, in order to meet future unique staffing needs, the firm is considering hiring part-time workers in several departments, including CPAs. Therefore, Alan must make a recommendation to the company’s board of directors on whether they should extend the benefits to part-time workers.

A recent compensation survey of businesses in the local geographic area includes information about benefits. The survey reports that about 90 percent of companies in the area offer time-off benefits to part-time employees, only 40 percent offer health care insurance, and 15 percent offer a retirement savings plan. A national survey of CPA firms showed a different picture for part-time workers: 95 percent of firms reported time-off offerings, 75 percent offered health care insurance, and 67 percent offered retirement benefits to part-time workers.

Discussion Questions

5/13/20, 2:33 PM Page 1 of 3

The job market for talented CPAs is competitive, and Alan knows that the firm will need to hire both full-time and part-time CPAs in the future. Alan’s initial reaction is that the firm needs to offer all benefits to both full-time and part-time workers in order to be competitive with other CPA firms. However, the costs to do so are significant. The current benefits package is approximately 30 percent of the total compensation package for full-time workers. While time off benefits and 401(k) contributions for part-time workers would be pro-rated based on the number of hours each employee works, offering health care insurance is a fixed cost. That is, the firm must pay the same to cover a part-time worker as a full-time worker. As a result, benefit costs could potentially approach nearly 50 percent of the total compensation for part-time employees. Part of this cost could be offset by asking part-time workers to pay a higher percentage of the premium, but the cost would still be significant. Alan must balance recruiting needs against a tight budget, and he is concerned about the right path to take.

Questions:

15-6. What are some factors that Alan should consider when determining whether to offer benefits to part-time workers?

15-7. Do you think the firm should offer benefits to part-time workers? If yes, should it offer paid time off, the 401(k) plan, and health insurance? Or only one or two of the benefits? Explain your recommendation.

Crunch the Numbers! Calculating Regional and Industry Pay Differences in China

An additional Crunch the Numbers! exercise can be found on mymanagementlab.com (http://mymanagementlab.com) .

The following table presents statistics for China based on 2013 data. Specifically, the numbers are the average annual pay, expressed in yuan, for the country overall, as well as industry average pay for four industries within four regions (among dozens) within China.

Region Agriculture, Forestry, Animal Husbandry and

Fishery

Manufacturing Scientific Research

and Technical Services

Health and

Social Service

Beijing 32531 42809 55689 47657

Tianjin 41255 42765 43931 38910

Shanghai 22722 30443 52064 42990

Henan 19869 23142 28898 25966

5/13/20, 2:33 PM Page 2 of 3

Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China. Available: http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/Statisticaldata/AnnualData/ (http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/Statisticaldata/AnnualData/) , accessed April 22, 2015.

15-8. Calculate the average annual pay for each region: (a) Beijing, (b) Tianjin, (c) Shanghai, and (d) Henan.

15-9. Calculate the average annual pay for each industry: (a) agriculture, (b) manufacturing, (c) scientific, research, and technical services, and (d) health and social service.

15-10. Which industry displays the (a) lowest average annual salary, and (b) highest average annual salary?

MyManagementLab

Go to mymanagementlab.com (http://mymanagementlab.com) for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded writing questions.

15-11. Concisely summarize the four challenges discussed in this chapter.

15-12. If overtime pay protections were to be strengthened, how might companies adjust staffing to minimize increased costs?

15-13. MyManagementLab Only – comprehensive writing assignment for this chapter.

5/13/20, 2:33 PM Page 3 of 3