Organizational Objectives and Total Compensation

Organizational Objectives and Total Compensation

Providing an analytical overview of compensation strategies within organizations is the purpose for writing this paper. As HR consultant the first objective is to explain how certain laws and regulations affect total compensation in the organization. The second objective will be to analyze the similarities and differences in total compensation between the organization and other organizations in different markets.

Different ways that organizations can use pay and benefits to recognize and reward employees contributions to the organizations success are considered compensation and benefit strategies. The organization has many options for compensation methods that can affect both the company and employee. The most important part of any compensation package is the benefits required by law that the organization offers (Martocchio, 2009).

Social Security is one of the biggest compensation packages required by law for any organization in the United States to offer. The OASDHI program of Social Security is broken into the Old Age, Survivors, Disability, and Health Insurance program. For organizations required by Federal Law to carry Social Security it is considered a shared cost between employer and employee. Federal Law sets the amount paid into the compensation plan so that employers cannot require employees to contribute more than what is required. The Social Security benefits become a retirement security for employees once they arrive at the federally mandated age of retirement (Martocchio, 2009).

The Fair Labor Standards Act is another large Federal requirement of organizations run in the United States. This compensation plan sets the minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor laws for organizations. The minimum wage for all organizations will be similar because it is set by the Federal Government. The only difference in the minimum wage for organizations will be if the organization chooses to have a higher set minimum wage for their employees. Overtime pay is another provision of the FLSA, and it is set to pay employees for hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a seven-day period. This requirement for nonexempt employees is to pay them at a rate equal to time and a-half for those hours. The only difference for organizations in other markets is that some of the employee's job titles fall into exempt categories from this overtime provisions act. Those employees in the exempt category are: executives, administrative, learned professional, creative professional, computer workers, and outside sales. The last FLSA provision is in child labor laws. This provision is also federally mandated and similar for organizations within the United States. It makes provisions to protect children from experiencing harmful working conditions, overworked, and jeopardizing their education because of excessive work. The child labor law sets working hours that varies by age and seasonal school schedules. Children under the