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Women may be badly outnumbered in the top ranks of corporate America, but at least they aren't underpaid.
Compensation for female chief financial officers at S&P 500 companies last year outpaced that of their male counterparts, according to an analysis by executive compensation firm Equilar and the Associated Press. It follows a similar trend seen with female CEOs in recent years.
The median pay for female CFOs last year rose nearly 11 percent to $3.32 million. Male CFO pay rose 7 percent, to $3.3 million. This follows several years of steady gains for both sexes.
The gains, for both men and women, are in part a result of the expansion of the CFO role to include far more responsibility and visibility.
"The CFO is no longer a bean counter," said Josh Crist, managing director at executive search firm Crist Kolder Associates.
Companies and shareholders became more focused on financial security and regulation after the financial crisis, and corporate finance began to play a bigger role in company strategy, according to Gregg Passin, a compensation expert at consulting firm Mercer.
Ruth Porat, became one of the most powerful women on Wall Street while helping steer Morgan Stanley, one of the nation's biggest investment banks, through the aftermath of the financial crisis. She topped the list of highest paid female CFOs with her $14.4 million pay package from Morgan Stanley for the 2014 fiscal year.
Google has since lured her away with a pay deal worth $70 million. Investors have warmly welcomed her arrival at Google, where she is expected to bring some financial discipline to what some consider their free-spending ways.
The increased responsibility and visibility has helped some women CFOs rise even further, to CEO. Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo and Lynn Good, CEO of Duke Energy are both former CFOs.
"It's a unique position that has the ability to contribute to day-to-day operations but also on long-term strategic planning," Good said. She called the CFO position "a critical training ground" for aspiring CEOs.
The other top-paid female CFOs, after Porat, include Marianne Lake of JPMorgan Chase, whose compensation package is valued at $9.1 million, Catherine Lesjak of Hewlett-Packard at $8 million, Sharon McCollam at Best Buy at $7 million and Robin Washington of Gilead Sciences at $6.2 million. This ranking reflects only the companies where the CFOs who have served two consecutive years in their particular position.
To calculate pay, Equilar adds salary, bonus, perks, stock awards, stock option awards and other pay components. To determine what stock and option awards are worth, Equilar uses the value of an award on the day it is granted, as shown in a company's proxy statement.
The high median pay for female CFOs is partly a result of sample size — there were only 60 female CFOs at the S&P 500 companies that qualified for inclusion in the study during the last fiscal year, compared with 437 men, according to Equilar.
It is also a factor in female CEO pay. Median CEO pay for women was $15.9 million last year, according to an analysis done earlier this year by Equilar and the AP, compared with $10.4 million for male CEOs. There were just 17 female CEOs, however.
The small group of women in these important roles tended to be focused at the largest companies, where pay is higher. Crist said that he expects more women to take on CFO duties in years ahead but the pay range will broaden as more women join smaller companies.
He notes that women have historically been underrepresented in finance overall. That is changing, and helping fuel this shift at the top. Younger women are getting better opportunities at entry levels and these lead to better opportunities down the line.
A Crist Kolder study found that the percentage of female CEOs and CFOs has hit an all-time in 2015. Of the 672 Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies evaluated, nearly 5 percent had female CEOs and 13 percent had female CFOs.
"It's a heck of a trend," he said. "It has been predominantly white male centric forever."
MIAMI (AP) —
School districts from Florida to California reported receiving threats Thursday similar to those that closed Los Angeles' massive school system earlier this week, though in most cases students attended class without interruption.
Tuesday's districtwide closure in Los Angeles was sparked by an email threatening a large-scale attack. New York City schools received a similar threat, but officials there concluded it was a hoax.
The closure of a large U.S. district because of threats is rare, and the move in Los Angeles — with the nation's second-largest school system — reflected the lingering unease in Southern California after the attack that killed 14 people at a holiday luncheon two weeks ago in San Bernardino.
Some of the districts affected by the latest threats are among the nation's largest — Miami ranks fourth, Fort Lauderdale's Broward County system is sixth, Houston seventh, Orlando 10th and Dallas 14th.
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TEXAS
Districts in Dallas and Houston and another near the Mexican border reported receiving threats, though none has been deemed credible.
Officials with the Dallas Independent School District said some teachers and staff members at two schools — Pinkston High and Martinez Elementary — received emailed threats and notified district officials. The district's police department activated its emergency response protocol and began working with other law enforcement agencies to make sure the schools were safe, though no credible threat was found.
"We need to make sure that we don't overreact to fear," police Chief David Brown said.
Robert Mock, police chief for the Houston Independent School District, said random overnight searches by explosives-detecting dogs and patrol officers turned up nothing after district officials, including the superintendent, received the threat by email.
He said he didn't want to downplay the message because "a threat is a threat." But he said the message referred to weapons and explosives among unsophisticated content that was "so far over the top the logistics just didn't pan out."
In South Texas, the McAllen Independent School District said in an email to parents that it appears district officials received the same threatening email that targeted the Los Angeles and New York districts. The statement said the South Texas district "was able to trace the email to the same server that was used" in those hoaxes. The Texas district did not elaborate.
The McAllen district has about 25,000 students and 33 campuses.
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FLORIDA
School officials in Miami and Fort Lauderdale haven't released details about the threats but said on their websites they were similar to those received in New York and Los Angeles.
In Miami, school officials said district police immediately contacted federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and promised to deploy extra security to schools.
In Orlando, Orange County Superintendent Barbara Jenkins said the threatening email was sent to the district's general email late Wednesday, and principals have been asked to stay alert and keep students calm.
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LONG BEACH
Officials say the district received an email threat similar to the ones in other cities. Schools opened for the district's 79,000 students on Thursday. Long Beach is adjacent to Los Angeles.
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INDIANA
Three school districts in the state canceled classes.
In Plainfield, west of Indianapolis, students were told to stay home after a threat was "directed to the high school."
In Danville, the Danville Community School Corp. said two students — a 14-year-old freshman and a 17-year-old senior — were arrested. They're accused of making threats against schools in separate incidents. Officials describe the first as a verbal threat that a classmate overheard and the second as a comment the senior posted on Facebook.
Danville Police Chief William Wright said a third threat was posted on social media early Thursday, and it was apparently tied to the threat against Plainfield schools.
Wright said officials are investigating and taking the threats seriously.
The Franklin Community Schools south of Indianapolis issued a statement saying it canceled Friday classes after receiving a "serious" threat and consulting with police. It says the validity of the threat received Thursday afternoon remained in question.
The statement did not disclose the nature of the threat, but Superintendent David Clendening told the Johnson County Daily Journal that police dogs were searching the Franklin Community High School after a caller reported a homemade bomb in a locker room area. The school also tweeted that it was on lockdown.
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SAN FRANCISCO
Officials with the San Francisco Unified School District said Thursday that officials determined a threat there was not credible. Schools are open Thursday.
Authorities say they inspected all schools and found nothing suspicious. Police presence is increased at schools around the district, which has 57,000 students.
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LAS VEGAS
A Clark County School District spokeswoman says administrators discovered an emailed threat after 9 a.m. Thursday similar to those received this week in Los Angeles, New York, Houston and other cities.
She says officials deemed the threat "less than credible."
The district sent a letter to parents saying principals and school staff had been asked to stay alert and keep students calm and focused on learning.
It says it has crisis plans in place and police trained to detect and respond to threats.
The district has 356 campuses and more than 320,000 students.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) —
The U.S. Postal Service says it's illegal to mail materials containing advertising for marijuana products, even in states that have legalized the federally controlled substance.
Oregon's Congressional delegation asking the service to clarify its policy on the issue.
In November, a memo distributed in the Portland postal district said it was unlawful for newspaper outlets to run marijuana ads and use the U.S. mail for delivery.
The memo caused confusion among publishers whose newspapers have published ads for dispensaries and manufacturers in the region.
"Advertisements for the sale of marijuana are non-mailable," Thomas Marshall, executive vice president and general counsel of the Postal Service, wrote in a letter to the delegation. That's because under the federal Controlled Substances Act marijuana's sale is prohibited, he said. That same law also prohibits placing written ads for controlled substances like marijuana in newspapers, magazines or other publications.
"These provisions express Congress's judgment that the mail should not be used as a means of transmitting advertisements for the sale of marijuana, even if that sale is allowed under state law," Marshall wrote.
Marshall says the Postal Service has released a national policy, which also spells out that local postal officials can't refuse mail that contains pot ads, but they must report it; the matter must then be turned over to law enforcement agencies who can decide if an investigation is warranted.
In a joint statement, Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley called the agency's stance uncompromising and said they want federal authorities to respect decisions made by Oregonians, who last year voted to legalize recreational marijuana for adult use. Oregon voters legalized medical marijuana in 1998.
Medical marijuana dispensaries have multiplied in Oregon and many now also offer recreational pot. The industry uses billboards, websites and newspaper ads to showcase their products in a highly competitive market.
"Unfortunately," said the joint statement, "the outdated federal approach to marijuana as described in the response from the Postal Service undermines and threatens news publications that choose to accept advertising from legal marijuana businesses in Oregon and other states where voters also have freely decided to legalize marijuana."
The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association said the Postal Service policy could rob newspapers of revenue. The group has advised its members not to run marijuana ads if they use the postal service for some delivery.
"This national policy from the USPS definitely prevents some of our members advertising opportunities," said executive director Laurie Hieb. But, she added, "This is new advertising and none of them currently rely on it to stay in business."
Some outlets — like two dozen newspapers in the Pamplin Media Group — have already decided not to run pot ads, but for a completely different reason: because they don't promote health.
In addition to Oregon, the policy also impacts the states of Washington, Colorado and Alaska, where voters legalized recreational marijuana in recent years, as well as other states where medical marijuana is legal.