ChatGPT might be a new stakeholder in your salary discussions, according to new research from compensation software company Payscale, which surveyed 1,000 employees and 500 leaders working in compensation.

Payscale found a growing gap between employer and employee salary expectations, and generative AI tools are contributing to the new norm.

Eighteen percent of employees are sourcing salary information from AI assistants like ChatGPT. Of those nearly one in five employees turning to a chatbot for insights, 27% say it’s “inflated their expectations” and 38% of employers agree that these tools yield higher salary demands, according to the report.

“I think the fundamental issue is that they’re [employers and employees] looking at the same object through two different lenses,” said Ron Seifert, senior client partner at Korn Ferry. “Employees get anecdotal information, and employers have real data, both internal practices and references as well as external market data.”

For more on the salary expectations gap, and what HR can do about it, keep reading here.—AD

The labor market is like those slimy pests that love eating the tomato plants growing in your garden: sluggish.

Ahead of this summer, economists expressed concern that existing economic uncertainty and new turmoil driven by President Trump’s ongoing tariff threats could send the labor market into a tailspin. While that hasn’t occurred, the latest job openings and labor turnover summary (JOLTS) data for June from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the labor market is continuing its slow but steady cooldown.

In some ways, it’s a blessing and a curse: While the job market hasn’t gone off the deep end, its continual stagnation is also creating its own problems. For example, as fewer opportunities open up externally, employees will be less likely to quit, stalling internal mobility opportunities.

“The story is not one of a job market that is collapsing. Instead, we see much like we’ve seen in the last few months, that the job market is cooling gradually,” said Daniel Zhao, Glassdoor’s lead economist. “But we are still seeing the same pattern in the JOLTS data that has helped explain why workers feel so sour about the current job market.”

For more on the latest labor turnover findings and what they mean for employers, keep reading here.—PM

Navigating benefits strategy is tough for any HR pro in today’s business environment.

As employee expectations about benefits become more diverse and niche, organizations must juggle providing a competitive total rewards package while managing challenges like rising costs. For Kate Phillips, Bank of America’s global head of benefits, one key part of her team’s multi-pronged approach to crafting offerings for the bank’s over 200,000 employees is simply through feedback.

“An important part of my job is making sure I’m staying connected to: What are our teammates’ needs? What do they want? How are those needs and priorities evolving for them?” Phillips told HR Brew.

For example, her team sources feedback via an enterprise-wide employee survey. They parse through the comments to gauge what workers’ needs or wants are, how priorities are changing, and incorporate that into their strategy planning. Last year, employees responded with more than 40,000 benefits-related comments on the survey.

For more insights from Phillips, including on the firm’s employee sabbatical program, keep reading here.

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From paperwork to people strategy, HR has come a long way. See how talent leaders navigated 25 years of change, from the rise of LinkedIn to the push for culture-first workplaces.

This story is part of our quarter-century project reflecting on 25 years in the HR industry. Explore the full quarter-century timeline here.