Survey Finds Strong Relationship Between Work-Life Balance and Ethical Behavior

Does work-life balance influence positive ethical behaviors at work? According to the findings of the "2007 Deloitte & Touche USA LLP Ethics & Workplace" survey, there is a strong relationship between the two factors.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Deloitte & Touche USA also showed that the behaviors of management and direct supervisors, coupled with positive inforcement for ethical behavior, are the top factors for promoting ethical behavior in the workforce.

"In the competitive environment to attract and retain talent, it is imperative that employers provide employees with the means to attain a healthy work-life balance," says Sharon Allen, chairman atDeloitte & Touche USA. "This is not only key to job satisfaction, and retaining your most valued employees, but it is also critical in fostering an ethical workplace culture."

"When you think about it," Allen adds, "if someone invests all oftheir time and energy into their jobs, it may have the unintended consequence of making them dependent on their jobs for everything--including their sense of personal worth. This makes it even harder to make a good choice when faced with an ethical dilemma if they believe it will impact their professional success."

According to the survey, 91 percent of all employed adults agreed thatworkers are more likely to behave ethically at work when they have a goodwork-life balance. A combined 44 percent of workers cite high levels ofstress (28 percent), long hours (25 percent) and inflexible schedule (13 percent) as the causes of conflict between their work responsibilities and personal priorities, hence contributors to work-life imbalance.

Sixty percent of employed adults surveyed think that job dissatisfaction is a leading reason why people make unethical decisions atwork, and more than half of workers (55 percent) ranked a flexible workschedule among the top three factors leading to job satisfaction, second only to compensation (63 percent).

The survey also reveals the important impact management and supervisors have in promoting ethical workplace behaviors. Employed adults ranked the behavior of management (42 percent) and direct supervisors (36 percent) as the top two factors contributing to the promotion of an ethical workplace.

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US Pay Increases to Lag China, India, Eastern Europe In 2007

New research from Philadelphia-based Hay Group reveals real pay increases (adjusted for inflation) for workers in the United States will substantially lag those in China, India and Eastern Europe in 2007. US administrative, professional and senior management employees arepredicted to see real increases of just 1.4%, v. increases approaching 8%in high-growth economies.

"Much like their colleagues in Europe, US employees will be seeingrelatively modest increases in base salaries when compared to the emergingeconomies," says Iain Fitzpatrick, general manager of Hay Group's US RewardInformation Services. "Projected 2007 increases are fairly consistent with real increases seen in the US over the past several years."

Hay Group's Global Pay Day analysis, compiled using Hay GroupPayNet, one of the world's most comprehensive global pay databases, predicts real base salary increases for administrative, professional and senior management in 2007 for 50 countries worldwide, based on employers' projections once inflation has been considered. The PayNet database contains 7 million individual records from 13,000 organizations in 19 job families across a number of industries.

"The wealth created by rapid, focused economic development is resulting in a pay boom for Chinese and Indian workers, who will enjoy some of thelargest real pay increases worldwide in 2007," says Hern Yin Goh, director of Hay Group Reward Information Services in Shanghai. China tops the tables for each of the three job categories, with apredicted 7.9% increase for administrative workers, 7.8% for professionals and 8.9% for senior management.

High pay increases in India last year -- 7.2% across the board -- look set to continue into 2007. The country boasts the second highest pay increase predictions for 2007, with increases of 6.2% forecast across thethree job levels. Senior managers can anticipate a real increase of 6.9%, professionals and administrators 5.9% each, according to Hay.

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Think That Conversation From Your Office Phone Is Private? Think Again

News reports thata Wal-Mart employee taped telephone conversations between a New York Times reporter and other Wal-Mart employees brings to light the practice of corporations who require employees to consent to company surveillance of calls made through company systems and equipment.

Wal-Mart officials have said the employee in the recently reported case was not authorized to make the recordings and adds that company policy restricts monitoring of employee communications to instances in which fraud or criminal activity is suspected, according to a Vanderbilt University statement.

However, that policy is not a requirement. "We know from recent surveys by groups such as the American Management Association and others that many firms do routinely monitor employee communications that employees might think are private, without cause of suspicion," says Bruce Barry, professor of management and sociology. "This means workers, especially in the private sector, work under the threat that their expressive activity is being watched, which has the effect of chilling free expression that might have nothing to do with the corporation, or that might involve whistleblowing regarding corporate misbehavior."

Barry has focused recent research on free expression in and around the workplace from legal, managerial, and ethical perspectives. He is the author of a soon-to-be-published book on the subject, Speechless: The Erosion of Free Expression in the American Workplace.

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Report: Workers Should Have More 401(k) Information

Over the past two decades there has been a shift in the types of retirement plans employers are offering employees. Employers are increasingly moving away from traditional defined benefit plans to what has become the most dominant and fastest growing type of defined contribution plan, the 401(k).

But as workers come to more heavily rely on 401(k) plans for their retirements, they to have more information, as well, a government audit finds.

Now, 401(k) plans represent the majority of all private pension plans; they also service the most participants and hold the most assets, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO is the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress. These plans offer a range of investment options, but equity funds—those that invest primarily in stocks—accounted for nearly half of 401(k) assets at the close of 2005. Most 401(k) plans are participant-directed, meaning that a participant is responsible for making the investment decisions about his or her own retirement plan contributions, GAO notes.

"Inadequate disclosure and reporting requirements may leave participants without a simple way to compare fees among plan investment options, and [the U.S.] Labor [Department] without the information it needs to oversee fees and identify questionable 401(k) business practices," the report says.

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 requires 401(k) plan sponsors to disclose only limited information on fees, GAO notes.

"Participants must collect various documents over time and may be required to seek out some documents in order to get a clear picture of the total fees that they pay. Furthermore, the documents that participants receive do not provide a simple way to compare fees—along with risk and historical performance—among the investment options in their 401(k) plan," GAO adds. "The information reported to Labor does not identify all fees charged to 401(k) plans and therefore has limited use for effectively overseeing fees and identifying undisclosed business arrangements among consultants or service providers. As a result, participants may have more limited investment options and pay higher fees for these options than they otherwise would."

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Higher Minimum Wage Would Help 13 Million U.S. Workers

Since 1997, the federal minimum wage has been stuck at $5.15. A bill moving through the new Congress would raise the minimum wage to $7.25—an increase that is long overdue, according to the left-leaning Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank.

This minimum wage increase would boost earnings for 13 million American workers—9.8 percent of the workforce, the think tank says.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a federal minimum wage increase, and now it is up to the U.S. Senate to consider the bill.

• Twelve million adult wage-earners, 80 percent of the minimum wage-earning population, will directly benefit from a minimum wage increase.
• Seven million families with children—46 percent of the total low wage-earning families with children—currently receive all of their earnings from minimum wage jobs.
• Nine million women (59 percent of minimum wage earners) and six million people of color (40 percent of minimum wage earners) will directly benefit from a minimum wage increase.
• Raising the minimum wage will increase annual earnings to $15,000 from $10,700. Without this increase, a family of three supported by one minimum wage earner will live roughly $5,400 below the federal poverty line.
• At the 350 largest public companies, the average CEO total direct compensation was $11.6 million in 2005. At this rate of compensation, it takes the average CEO only one hour and 55 minutes to earn the annual pay of a minimum wage worker.

The minimum wage increase will not harm our economy, the think tank says:

• The minimum wage increase will not cause price inflation. In Arizona, for example, the total cost of the wage increases is equal to 0.08 percent of total sales. The average business can fully cover the cost of the minimum wage by increasing revenue by less than 0.1 percent.
• The minimum wage increase will not destroy job growth. Between 1997 and 2003, small business employment increased by 9.4 percent in higher minimum wage states, compared to 6.6 percent in states at the federal level.
• The minimum wage increase will not shut down small businesses. Between 1998 and 2003, the number of small businesses increased by 5.5 percent in higher minimum wage states, compared to 4.2 percent in states at the federal minimum wage level.

Raising the minimum wage is a progressive issue that resonates with the American public and bridges the partisan divide, the center adds.

• A 2006 opinion poll found that 83 percent of Americans support an increase in the federal minimum wage.
• A decade of federal inaction has prompted 29 states (including D.C.) to raise the minimum wage above $5.15.
• The minimum wage is an opportunity for bipartisanship. In 2006, the governors and state legislatures of California, Michigan, and Pennsylvania worked across party lines to raise the minimum wage.
• In 2006, the minimum wage ballot initiatives had a “6-0” winning record in six states that voted for President Bush in 2000 and 2004. The minimum wage presents an issue that can unite, rather than divide, America.


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