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Taxes and government is the answer. Almost every bonus listed is tax incentivize vs just paying people more. The real question we should ask is how did we get a

Taxes and government is the answer. Almost every bonus listed is tax incentivize vs just paying people more. The real question we should ask is how did we get all the laws that make this the reality.

hundreder 5y ago
This. Payroll taxes incentivize lower wages and encourage alternative compensation. This is very similar to how government programs influenced market incentives that gave rise to employer sponsored health insurance: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/upshot/the-real-reason-the-us-has-employer-sponsored-health-insurance.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/upshot/the-real-reason-th... Instead of vilifying employers who are (in most cases) just responding to market incentives, we should be advocating for lower payroll taxes.
- not2b 5y ago
  And then people have nothing to retire on, unless the lowering of payroll taxes is combined with bringing back pensions (employer paid retirement income).
- alisonkisk 5y ago
  Do you mean, advocate for disallowing exemptions from payroll taxes?
wilde 5y ago
If we removed those incentives, companies would just give the rest to executives. https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-surged-14-in-2019-to-21-3-million-ceos-now-earn-320-times-as-much-as-a-typical-worker/ https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-surged-14-i...
- savanaly 5y ago
  Could you expand on your model?
  - wilde 5y ago
    Sure, here’s an NBER paper that attempts to estimate this using state corporate tax cuts. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24598/w24598.pdf https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24598/w245...
- therealdrag0 5y ago
  Why? They still need to attract and compete for talent which is what all this song and dance is about.
  - wilde 5y ago
    Because the people making these decisions want to be paid more? The effect is relatively well studied. Here’s an NBER paper. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24598/w24598.pdf https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24598/w245...

Taxes and government is the answer. Almost every bonus listed is tax incentivize vs just paying people more. The real question we should ask is how did we get all the laws that make this the reality.

hundreder 5y ago

This. Payroll taxes incentivize lower wages and encourage alternative compensation. This is very similar to how government programs influenced market incentives that gave rise to employer sponsored health insurance: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/upshot/the-real-reason-the-us-has-employer-sponsored-health-insurance.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/upshot/the-real-reason-th... Instead of vilifying employers who are (in most cases) just responding to market incentives, we should be advocating for lower payroll taxes.

not2b 5y ago
And then people have nothing to retire on, unless the lowering of payroll taxes is combined with bringing back pensions (employer paid retirement income).
alisonkisk 5y ago
Do you mean, advocate for disallowing exemptions from payroll taxes?

wilde 5y ago

If we removed those incentives, companies would just give the rest to executives. https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-surged-14-in-2019-to-21-3-million-ceos-now-earn-320-times-as-much-as-a-typical-worker/ https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-surged-14-i...

savanaly 5y ago
Could you expand on your model?
- wilde 5y ago
  Sure, here’s an NBER paper that attempts to estimate this using state corporate tax cuts. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24598/w24598.pdf https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24598/w245...
therealdrag0 5y ago
Why? They still need to attract and compete for talent which is what all this song and dance is about.
- wilde 5y ago
  Because the people making these decisions want to be paid more? The effect is relatively well studied. Here’s an NBER paper. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24598/w24598.pdf https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w24598/w245...