ICS Director and Managing Director discuss pay with WSJ

This month the Wall Street Journal tapped Cornell's Institute for Compensation Studies twice in two different pay-related stories.

Lauren Weber, Wall Street Journal Careers reporter, interviewed Professor Kevin Hallock on what appears to be a slight pick-up in wage and salary increases. While the overall Employment Cost Index is not showing strong upward pressure on pay, some specific jobs are seeing some strengthening conditions. Hallock suggests that now is an important time to be watching for the long-awaited recovery in compensation trends.

Click here to read the full WSJ blog on wage trends

On January 28 2013, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed legislation the bill to raise the minimum wage in New Jersey. For her story, "Christie Vetoes Bill to Raise Minimum Pay," Wall Street Journal reporter Heather Haddon asked Linda Barrington, managing director of Cornell's Institute for Compensation Studies, about the current political pressures surrounding the minimum wage.

Barrington noted that, given the continuing soft labor market, "You don't have employers that are naturally feeling the market pressures to raise wages to get the talent they need." This is making opposition from business stronger than it might be in times of tighter labor demand.

Back in November 2012, ICS director Kevin Hallock had pointed out that "interest in the impacts of minimum wage legislation will only increase during, and likely after, this presidential campaign." (See in Hallock's November 2012 Workspan magazine column, Economic Effects of the Minimum Wage.) This does appear to be the case as state legislative debates over whether to raise the minimum wage are heating up.

Click here to read the full WSJ story on NJ Minimum Wage veto