Today’s Federal Register contains final regulations under section 457 of the Internal Revenue Code as reported here yesterday.
Shailagh Murray and John D. McKinnon for the Wall Street Journal provide this update regarding the Bush administration’s pension funding proposals: “Bush Considers Sweetening Pension Rules for Businesses.” (Subscription required.) The article reports Treasury Secretary John Snow as saying that “the Bush administration is considering adding more business-friendly provisions to proposed changes in federal pension-funding rules to help sell the plan on Capitol Hill” and that “pension reform is one of the Treasury’s top priorities this year.” Mr. Snow apparently analogized the pension funding crisis to the collapse of the savings and loan industry in the late 1980s.
“Stock option plans get reevaluated” reports Martin Wolk for MSNBC News at MSN.com. The article reports that Mercer Human Resource Consulting recently surveyed more than 200 companies, including many of the nation’s biggest, and found that 76 have introduced new forms of equity compensation this year, including restricted stock that vests over time and shares awarded based on performance.
Also on stock options, this op-ed by Andrew Cassel for the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Does abandoning stock options really end the dream?” and PBS interviews Nobel prize-winning economist and Harvard Business School professor Robert Merton regarding the impact of Microsoft’s decision to cancel its employee stock option program.
“The Bush administration and House GOP leaders staved off a spirited effort by Democrats and their allies in organized labor to block proposed Labor Department rules governing overtime compensation Thursday,” reports Peter Cohn for Gov.Exec.com in an article entitled “House beats back effort to block overhaul of overtime rules.” Also reporting on the subject, Juliet Eilperin for the Washington Post has this–“House Votes to Allow Overhaul of Overtime: Labor Department’s Redefinition of Rules Would Help Many Lower-Income Workers“–and Devlin Barrett for Newsday.com reports: “House vote on overtime changes splits state’s Republicans.” You can access the DOL’s statement regarding the victory here.