posted on February 20, 2005 04:04:44 AM newSurvey: CEOs at many of the biggest companies are now making an average of $10.7 million.
February 19, 2005: 3:53 PM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chief executives at many of the biggest U.S. companies got an average 5 percent raise last year to $10.7 million, and more corporate boards concluded that pay for performance is the way to go in the executive suite. In a survey of 50 large U.S. companies, restricted stock and other performance-based incentives constituted 41 percent of long-term CEO compensation, up from 18 percent in 2003. The percentage was the highest since 1994.
posted on February 20, 2005 04:44:46 AM new
please Db dont get me started on that.I cant believe that woman who got canned and was responsible for merging HP and Compaq,just got a 27 million dollar serverence pay-are these companies playing with themselves or what??
posted on February 20, 2005 09:18:37 AM new
They only pay FICA (SS Premiums) on the first 90,000. Raising the cap to include all income would create a SS surplus.
posted on February 20, 2005 02:38:32 PM new
Decisions, decisions! Do I do what's best for the stockholder's or the customer? Do I do what's best for the ecology or for the employees? I just don't know. Say, what makes my bonus bigger?
__________
The Islamofascist fig-puckers are fighting to spread their culture and religion, and to destroy ours
posted on February 20, 2005 03:22:09 PM new
Don't start me on Compaq, When I was there and Rod Canion was fired, the WHOLE culture and moral died.
When we found that Phiefer had negoiated a Golden Parachute ($25M) in a conrtact to take over the compay BEFORE Rod was fired, we were even more irate.
Later we found out that Phiefer as a German citizen had a deal for Compaq to pay all the taxes on Compaq stock he sold, we were even more pizzed.
I was one happy camper when Phiefer was terminated.
A word to the wise ain't necessary, it's the stupid ones that need the advice."
- Bill Cosby
posted on February 20, 2005 06:14:23 PM newCEOs at many of the biggest companies are now making an average of $10.7 million.
A general in the army only makes $150K a year.
The average military soldier only makes $20-$30K.
The rich get richer.......
Absolute faith has been shown, consistently, to breed intolerance. And intolerance, history teaches us, again and again, begets violence.
---------------------------------- Bush will fix Social Security just like he has fixed Osama Bin Laden and Iraq. Bush can't be trusted to run this country and you want to trust him with your retirement?
posted on February 20, 2005 06:51:23 PM new
So what logansdad. Corporations are owned by people. The army is the government. Corporations give the big guns big money get over it. Do you think Meg would be CEO of eBay is she didn't get a big salary. I also bet you wouldn't give up a large salary to be a CEO.
posted on February 20, 2005 07:04:18 PM new
INCOME INEQUALITY
As mentioned earlier, America has the greatest inequality of income and wealth in the industrialized world:
Inequality of income (0 = most equal society, 100 = the least equal):
United States 99
Canada 83
Netherlands 82
Switzerland 79
United Kingdom 78
Germany 66
Norway 60
Sweden 60
Average CEO's pay as a multiple of an average
worker's pay:
United States 17.5 (More)
United Kingdom 12.4
Japan 11.6
Canada 9.6
France 8.9
Germany 6.5
Percent of Union Membership in Workforce:
Sweden 85.3%
United Kingdom 41.5
Canada 34.6
Germany 33.8
Japan 26.8
Netherlands 25.0
United States 16.4
Size of Middle Class (More):
Japan 90.0%
Sweden 79.0
Norway 73.4
Germany 70.1
Switzerland 67.2
Netherlands 62.5
Canada 58.5
United Kingdom 58.5
United States 53.7
Poverty level (More):
United States 17.1%
Canada 12.6
United Kingdom 9.7
Switzerland 8.5
Germany 5.6
Sweden 5.3
Norway 5.2
Children under the poverty level:
United States 22.4%
Canada 15.5
United Kingdom 9.3
Switzerland 7.8
Sweden 5.0
Germany 4.9
Norway 4.8
Deaths from malnutrition (per million):
Men Women
United States 7 13
France 4 9
Canada 5 7
Japan 2 1
United Kingdom 1 2
Norway 0 1
Head Start (percent of age group enrolled in preschool)
2-year olds 3-year olds 4-year olds
France 35.7% 96.3 100
Norway 22.8 31.6 44.1
Finland 20.2 16.0 19.6
Germany 9.1 32.3 71.6
United Kingdom 1.3 25.9 69.2
United States 0.0 28.9 49.0
posted on February 20, 2005 07:45:14 PM new
The Working Stiff Journal
Vol. 2 #8, October 1999
Study Finds Inequities in CEO Pay, Worker Pay, Profits
by Jen Greenfield
Shortly before Labor Day, United for a Fair Economy released a study which concluded that the disparity between
CEO and worker pay is part of a growing trend of unprecedented levels of wealth, greed, and inequality in the
United States. The pay gap results in negative consequences for workers, corporations, and the democratic process
in this country.
United for a Fair Economy is an independent, non-partisan organization that focuses on the dangers of the growing
income, wage, and wealth inequality in the U.S. This most recent study is part of the annual Executive
Compensation Survey, which examines CEO pay in relation to worker pay as well as CEO pay in other countries.
During the 1990s, corporate profits have risen 108%. But this wealth has remained concentrated at the top of the
corporate hierarchy. During this time, workers’ pay has risen 28% (before adjusting for inflation). Meanwhile, CEO
pay has rise 481%.
Corporate boards of directors often claim that CEO pay is tied to their company’s financial performance. But
corporations’ highest-ranking executives grossed an average of $10.6 million in 1998, as compared to $1.8 million
in 1990, vastly outpacing the rate of corporate growth.
The study emphasizes that the workers who actually produce the goods and services that result in corporate incomes
continue to be unfairly compensated. If average production worker pay had risen at the same rate as CEO pay
between 1990 and 1998, worker pay would be $110,399 today, rather than the current $29,267. The minimum wage
would be $22.08, rather than the current $5.15 per hour, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, wages have also not kept pace with productivity gains. If wages did
correlate to the 32.8% increase in productivity between 1973 and 1998, they would be $18.10 per hour rather than
$12.77.
posted on February 20, 2005 07:59:37 PM new
Crowfarm before you posted your article did you read it. It has nothing to do with now. The last reported was 1998. You see corporate greed was happening before the Bush administration. Can you believe that!
Now in the workers wages are they factoring in the price of benefits. Those amount to about $1,000 a year.
posted on February 20, 2005 08:29:29 PM new
hey logan and crow, since we are outsourcing millions of Middle Class American jobs for cheap labor. Lets outsource a bunch of CEO jobs to foreign countries. I am sure we could fine a lot of very smart Chinese people that would do a good job at being a CEO at around a tenth of the cost.
Libra said "So what logansdad. Corporations are owned by people. The army is the government." I guess people like her has forgotten that our government is supposed to be for the people by the people. The more this woman Libra posts the more transparent her mind set becomes.
Hey crow, thanks for posting those stats to show everyone how our country stacks up with other industrial FREE nations. Looks like this White House has a "HARD JOB" in front of them.
posted on February 20, 2005 09:23:16 PM newI guess people like her HAVE forgotten that our government is supposed to be for the people by the people.
Hey bigpeepa, where you been the last 30 years?
Your romantic notions of government are about as precious as the antiques you sell! Let's see, class action lawsuits with lawyers like Attitus Finch dashing in to save the day with teary-eyed jurors.... and now this for the people by the people thing. That notion of government is long long gone. (It's for the dollar, by the dollar. In case you've been sleeping.)
btw, whats the difference between somebody's mind, and their mind set?
posted on February 20, 2005 09:35:23 PM new
::btw, whats the difference between somebody's mind, and their mind set?::
In my case... Mind is SET at 10 but has worked at 7 all week.
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on March 1, 2005 11:34:54 PM new
Then there's the other side of the CEO salary issue: [I like the examples and facts given in this OP-ED]
Are CEOs overpaid?
townhall.com
Walter E. Williams
March 2, 2005
In the wake of the Enron and WorldCom corporate scandals, the purveyors of envy have found another opportunity to preach about what they consider the evils of high CEO salaries, retirements and bonuses. After all, according to them, evil must be afoot when a corporate executive earns more in a week that the average worker earns in an entire year. Let's look at it.
Dishonest Enron and WorldCom CEOs are rare among corporate executives. As such, all CEOs shouldn't be tarnished for the misdeeds of a few any more than we'd tarnish all newspaper reporters because a few among their ranks were liars like the Boston Globe's Patricia Smith and Mike Barnicle, Jayson Blair of The New York Times, and The Washington Post's Janet Cooke.
Is a CEO worth millions of dollars to a corporation? When Jack Welch became General Electric's CEO in 1981, the stock market judged the company to be worth about $14 billion. Through hiring and firing, buying and selling, Welch turned the company around before he retired in 2001. Today, GE is worth nearly $500 billion, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world.
What's a CEO worth for providing the brains and leadership to turn a $14 billion corporation into one worth $500 billion?
How about paying just a measly one-half of a percent of the increase in value? If that were the case, Welch's total compensation would have come to nearly $2.5 billion, instead of the few hundred million that he actually received.
The Gillette Co. was in the early stages of corporate death in 2001 when Jim Kilts took over as CEO. The company's stock had lost almost half of its value in two years, and sales volume and market shares of its major brands had plummeted. Between the time Kilts took over at Gillette and this year's Jan. 28 announcement of Procter & Gamble's purchase of Gillette, Gillette's market value increased by $11.3 billion, a 34 percent improvement, and since the announcement, Gillette's value has risen by another $5.7 billion. Kilts' salary and bonuses over the past four years, totaling about $17.5 million, haven't been especially large by CEO standards. Predictably, however, Kilts' pay and particularly the size of his compensation package from the merger -- $153 million -- have been the subject of media carping, particularly in Boston, where Gillette is headquartered. This figure is indeed large, but it, added to what Gillette has paid him since 2001, makes Kilts' total compensation a mere 1.5 percent of his contribution to Gillette's value.
Here are a couple of questions to you: If you were the owner of GE, and a CEO could turn your $14 billion corporation into a $500 billion one, how much would you be willing to pay that man in salary and bonuses? Or, in the case of Jim Kilts, turning Gillette from a corporation in steep decline into one Procter & Gamble was willing to buy for $57 billion, how much would you be willing to pay?
Then, you might ask yourself: If a corporate board of directors could buy a $300 computer that could do what a CEO could do, would it pay CEOs millions of dollars? By the same token, if an NFL owner could hire a computer to make the decisions that star quarterbacks make, why would he pay some of these guys yearly compensation packages worth more than $10 million?
There's another important issue. If one company has an effective CEO, it is not the only company that would like to have him on the payroll. In order to keep him, the company must pay him enough so that he can't be lured elsewhere.
If you ask me, I know of only one class of workers who are overpaid and underworked -- college professors.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Four More Years....YES!!!
