Gen Zers love Roths: Gen Z is the Roth generation. The youngest savers are flocking to Roth individual retirement accounts, taking advice from their parents and social media influencers touting the tax-free growth the accounts offer. Among Gen Z investors, total IRA contributions grew 65% year-to-year in the first quarter of 2026, compared with a 31% increase for millennials. Three-quarters of people age 35 and under chose Roths, compared with less than half in that age group a decade ago, according to Fidelity Investments. Overall, IRA contributions for people of all ages hit record highs in the first quarter of this year, with nearly 30% more dollars flowing into these accounts than in the same period last year. The number of IRA owners making contributions also rose nearly 30%, according to data published by Fidelity, based on an analysis of 19.6 million IRA accounts. Nearly seven out of every 10 dollars that went into a Fidelity IRA in the first three months of this year ended up in a Roth account. With these, owners contribute after-tax dollars that grow and can be withdrawn tax-free. In contrast, traditional retirement accounts often allow tax-deductible contributions, but withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income. Source: Wall Street Journal 5/28/26

Bad behavior is bad behavior and actionable:  The parent company of Mississippi news station WLBT-TV did not discriminate against a White former anchor when it fired her for using racially offensive language on air, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held in a May 22 decision. Gray Media Group, Inc. terminated the anchor following two separate incidents that the employer deemed to have violated internal policies prohibiting the use of harassing and derogatory language as well as policies against conduct which could reflect negatively upon the station or its employees. The plaintiff alleged that her race played a part in her termination in violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. A district court granted summary judgment to Gray Media Group and the 5th Circuit affirmed. The court held that the employer made its decision after receiving complaints from employees and viewers about the offending comments, leaving no factual dispute as to whether race was a motivating factor. Source: HR Dive 5/27/26

Are your managers prepared for conversations about pay? One of the main takeaways from a new survey by global professional services firm Aon is that only 8% of managers are "highly ready" for pay transparency conversations. Over half (51%) report low or no readiness. Managers already have a lot of pressures and responsibilities, from overseeing day-to-day operations to rolling out new policies, said Steve Guyer, head of rewards and career advisory, North America talent solutions, at Aon. Aon's 2026 Pay Transparency Pulse Survey, which polled more than 1,000 companies, also asked respondents to identify their biggest risks and concerns about increasing pay transparency. Eighty-four percent pointed to manager readiness, followed by employee dissatisfaction (63%), and cost to implement and remediate gaps (41%).  Other factors included revealing pay inequities (38%), legal exposure (31%), and data quality issues (31%). Just over half of respondents publish salary ranges (54%), yet only 42% have formal manager training in place. Another 63% plan to close this gap within the next two years, but until they do, organizations are operating in a window of elevated risk, according to the report. Download ASE’s Compensation Communication Toolkit for a practical guide to communicating your compensation program. Source: EBN 5/29/26

In the age of AI, employers need to change their hiring models for executive leadership: While most senior leaders remain open to new opportunities, nearly half (46%) say succession planning at their organization is not proactively managed, meaning transition conversations often begin only after a leadership seat goes empty, resulting in compressed timelines and rushed decision-making instead of thoughtful leadership design. The report also emphasizes that succession planning today is much more difficult, as executive roles themselves are evolving. Organizations are no longer just replacing a leader with someone similar—ideally, they should be reassessing what the business needs next, if and how the role scope should change and whether internal candidates are actually prepared for the future version of the role. New research from ON Partners—the executive search firm behind leadership placements at companies including NVIDIA—found that 94% of executives say their roles are already changing due to AI, yet only 9% of organizations substantially rethink a leadership role before filling it. According to the data, nearly 3 in 4 companies still replace leaders with a “like-for-like” candidate. Many companies are hiring for outdated business models even as AI continues to rapidly change what leadership should look like. Source: HR Executive 5/27/26

Most organizations still have issues with their HRIS systems: Many organizations have yet to fully take advantage of their modern HR and payroll technologies despite major investments in these areas, leaving leadership in the dark about important workplace data, according to a new report. Findings from Strada's global poll among senior organizational leaders revealed that 74% of organizations are already investing in a major cloud-based Human Capital Management (HCM) platform. However, just 29% of them said they have seen meaningful improvement in core outcomes, particularly on automating manual tasks (23%), self-service adoption (22%), and compliance confidence (21%). According to the report, 77% of organizations still have backup systems or manual workarounds alongside their primary platform to manage payroll and workforce operations. Only 39% of firms said they can see their total global payroll spend in real time, while just 38% can confirm compliance across jurisdictions without manual checks. The report noted that over 40% of firms still need human intervention or compilation to get data on questions such as total people cost, workforce composition, overtime and premium pay, and use of freelancers.  Will AI change this? We don’t know, but HR needs AI skills otherwise they will be dictated to by those who have no HR skills. Source: HR Director 5/27/26