Skip to main content

Conspiracy Theories

With KPMG losing the overtime case in Canada, it would set a precedent for the rest of the big 4 to be sued and lose the case. Then, it could potentially trickle into the Big Kahuna, good ol' USA. And if one of the big 4 loses here, then all hell could break lose. Why? Because if employees get paid overtime for the all the hundreds of hours they put in over the past few years, we're talking millions of dollars of compensation by the public accounting firms.

Wanted to put out there a theory a co-worker had, in light of KPMG's defeat in the overtime case in Canada.
a) Firms like PWC and EY have started offering CPA bonuses to employees who pass their CPA in their first few years with the firms. Now, this overtime compensation only applies to employees who have not been professionally certified. Why? Well I honestly have no idea, but apparently that is the case. So even though the firms are spinning the bonus to reward employees for passing their exams early, it could actually pay a way to stem potential damages if the firms lose a similar lawsuit in the US in the next 4-5 years. Intriguing!
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
At the risk of repeating myself in another comment I've left here, none of the "professional staff" get cash overtime.

Regarding CPA bonuses, the story I heard was that first one firm offered it, then the second one did to 'keep up'.

All about reducing turnover a bit rather than dealing with O/T.

In fact, the bonus would have ZERO impact on O/T liability, as it's not for hours worked, but for the exam.

The theory doesn't work, I'm afraid.
March 2, 2008 at 11:07 PM
notfordisplay said…
It doesn't , it is outlandish, but since it is making the chatter ,I figured it needed to hit the webwaves. I did point out in a later post that a partner mooted this point by making valid counter-arguments.
March 3, 2008 at 6:16 AM
notfordisplay said…
I must say though, that employees of the big 4 (professionals) did get paid overtime until the mid-80s. Then, when PWC said that they'd raise the salaries and abolish OT, the other firms followed suit because it made more business sense. This was what a partner said.
March 3, 2008 at 6:17 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ADP/Payroll

Just realized that the very payroll/adp reports we all enjoyed looking at in order to see how much our client contacts made, now seem to piss me off. Especially when your main contact, who couldn't tell a debit from a credit, makes significantly more than you, and leaves at 5. It's almost guaranteed to get you in a foul mood and yak with your team about the ridiculous salaries that certain employees get when compared to yours.
36 comments
Read more

should you choose to audit financial services?

I'm trying to decide whether to audit financial services companies or non-financial services companies. What would you say are the pros and cons of either industries? Do individuals who choose non-FS have less career mobility within the firm or if they decide not to stay with the B4 after a few years? Really depends on what you'd like to do after (unless you really love auditing). If you want to a controller,etc. at a p/e firm or a hedge fund down the road, you'd want to go into financial services. The pay won't be too bad, especially if you get a share of the insane bonuses they dole out. If you want to audit industries with tangible products and want to get a better understanding of the operations of such businesses, then other industries are the way to go.In terms of mobility outside the firm, auditing other industries is the way to go since you have plenty of options when you exit the audit world. For example, in 2008, after Lehman collapsed, it was incredibly hard ...
47 comments
Read more

auditing vs consulting

I was wondering if you could break down the career opportunities in auditing and consulting (in a big 4). I know that consulting pays more in a big 4 and has more interesting work, but it seems that auditing has extremely good exit opportunities (Financial controller, CFO etc). Any thoughts on which is better in the long run? Well there's different consulting services offered by public accounting companies - the most popular being IT consulting and risk consulting. There are also other consulting services offered, but these two hire the most. Do they pay more? Yes, but not by much. Not enough for you to say: Shoot, the $$ is a huge reason for me to move over. Is the work more interesting than audit? Yes. You're actually looking over a company's processes and telling them what to do instead of what not to do (audit). Everyone I know who's made the switch likes it waay better than audit. In the long run though, choosing audit vs consulting really depends on what you want ...
66 comments
Read more