Compensation & Benefits Review

This study aims at investigating the good and bad of contract employment and examines whether there have been changes in the working conditions over time. Specifically, the study explored why people accept contract work and the peculiar emotional challenges they experience due to their employment status. A qualitative research design was employed with data collected through interviews with 34 employees from six financial institutions in Ghana. Thematic analysis revealed that individuals’ reasons for accepting contract work were either for socioeconomic convenience, affective or job-related factors. The emotional challenges experienced by these contract workers were either psychological or social. Another finding that emerged pertained to intrinsic and extrinsic protective factors for the experience of these emotional challenges. These findings imply that although contract workers are more vulnerable and may experience a variety of emotional challenges compared to permanent workers, some of these contract workers consider their jobs a blessing rather than a curse.

In recent years, cryptocurrency has begun to ascend as a worldwide phenomenon. As a result of its rising popularity, prospective and existing employees have taken an interest in receiving payment in cryptocurrency. This appeal has prompted compensation professionals and other leaders to consider incorporating cryptocurrency into their compensation strategies. While this form of payment may present as an innovative compensation plan, compensation professionals should be fully aware of the complexities involved and the potential challenges associated with its application. This article provides an overview of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, reasons why employees may want to be paid in cryptocurrency, pertinent legal/regulatory factors, administrative challenges for employers, associated risks, and recommendations for compensation professionals who may be considering integrating cryptocurrency into their compensation strategies.

Increasing compensation reduces turnover in other industries, but it is unclear if increasing tip percentages will reduce turnover among tipped service workers. This question was examined using a panel data set on the charge tips of restaurant servers over time from POS systems. The results indicate that tip percentages were generally consistent across servers’ running workday counts (in other words, across growing levels of server experience), but were slightly higher overall for those servers who ultimately stayed in the job for more workdays. These findings provide more compelling evidence of a potential tip percentage effect on server tenure than is provided by existing cross-sectional correlational data sets. However, the effect of servers’ average tip percentages on their tenure was relatively small—accounting for only 5% of the variance in server tenure, as compared to 14% accounted for by servers’ average dollar tips per day and 33% accounted for by servers’ average number of daily checks. Compensation is important, but when it comes to restaurant waitstaff turnover, other things may matter more.