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CEO Pay Up 298%, Average Worker's? 4.3% (1995-2005) »

Posted by: Wil 2 years, 8 months ago

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There's been a lot of ballyhoo lately about ballooning executive pay, so here's a look at how CEO incomes rose over the years in relation to Joe Blow's paycheck. It looks like while CEO pay rose 298.2% by 2005, and corporate profits by 106.7%, the average worker pay has only risen by 4.3%

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Wil

I was a Propeller Scout, and I ran the Geeks Group. AOL sent me to the land of Wind and Ghosts, though, so I don ...

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Comments: 35

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giantblah
April 10, 2007, 2:06 p.m.
Sad.
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unome2
April 10, 2007, 9:48 p.m.
People need incentive to shut-up about 9-11.
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atypicalguy
April 11, 2007, 4:17 a.m.
Who brought up 911?
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HMMace
April 11, 2007, 6:27 a.m.
Why I will not buy stock....stock options---where the board gives share holder money away....CEOs, who after losing vast amounts of money--are rewarded with lucrtive bonuses to leave...Then there is the just plain crooked people in this world...The share holder has no protection from these people..if you make oney on your stock--thank the lord..because it was not the boards doing, or the CEOs..because, they actually work against the share holder..SEC?? What a laugh they are...They are the "crooked people"...
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Nowalive
April 11, 2007, 8:22 a.m.
How's this for sad. The President receives $400,000 a year salary. Bob Nardelli former CEO of Home Depot was terminated, and upon leaving was given $295 Million as a severance package. I personally don't believe that any CEO, COO, etc. deserves that much money. This is a prime example of corporate greed. That money would best serve the interests of corporations through re-investment, and higher wages for those who produce for the company.
A bit of irony here: Presidential candidates spend upwards of $50 million "interviewing" for a job that pays $400,000.
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walden3
April 11, 2007, 8:32 a.m.
i don't mind if these hockey pucks get paid a lot of money, but it should at least in some way be tied to performance. time and time again we see one of these kooks drive a business into the ground and they still get a golden parachute instead of a golden shower.
the problem is that there is a very small and very exclsuive club of CEO types and they only hire each other. there is a sort of revolving door that they go business to business and board of directors to board of directors. they all recommend each other and only each other. it is still an old boys network.
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Nowalive
April 11, 2007, 8:59 a.m.
BTW, I'll take that job as President with an 80% pay cut.
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DrWatson
April 11, 2007, 9:07 a.m.
nice to see the right wing greed machine is well-oiled. 298%??
is that all. I can see those greedy barstools, those Bush-lovers crying, wanting more.
This is one more nail in the coffin of the middle-class. At this rate, we'll be wiped out in a few years.
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espse
April 11, 2007, 10:09 a.m.
Amazing that the defenders of 300% pay increase of corporate stuffed shirts will immediately insist that unions are the reason american business is swirling around the toilet. And then they enjoy their 40 hour work week and their living wage, and wait for their jobs to be citibanked or Circuit Citied, by these same corporate clowns who after "streamlining" the company at the behest of the super rich stockholders, give them self another 20% raise. Then the walmart shoppers go out and vote republican, wrapping themselves in their chineese made american flag.
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engineer
April 11, 2007, 10:11 a.m.
You guys make a lot of sense. Then they need a tax cut???
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icelander
April 11, 2007, 10:11 a.m.
Heck, I'll be a CEO of a major corporation for $250,000 a year and a million dollar golden parachute. Even if I lost money, they'd save a bundle hiring me over some other guy.
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joeblowe
April 11, 2007, 10:17 a.m.
Hey! I didn't give them any information about my pay check. They must be making this up.
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GregD
April 11, 2007, 10:28 a.m.
Here's a very good wiki on executive compensation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_compensa...
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brothers
April 11, 2007, 10:33 a.m.
Its not who or what you know, its who you b..w as the saying goes.
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Goppy
April 11, 2007, 10:57 a.m.
Youse guys are all wagin wats called CLASS WARFARE. You knows that similar to Socialism.
We got to pay these executives lots of money or else they will go to work for someones else. Our whole system of govenment might collapse.
Besides, it aint like they dont desvere these raises. If they dint deserver them, then they wouldnt gather the board members together and vote themselves those big raises.
Believes me, the top executives in this nation are very special people. Every one of em is really, really smaht. And they always makes the right decisions.
Now the only reason Enron failed was accounta the ACLU.
And Wolrd Com failed cause a HIllery.
And HealthSouth werent really a fraudulent entaprise, thye just ran afoul of Democrats.
See, all corporations want to do is be religious, God Fearin, Patriotic, Americans, who only want the type of income that matches their Godlieness.
Amen.
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vor
April 11, 2007, 11:21 a.m.
I was reading a column by George Will the other day mocking the idea that gas price increases really affect the average American. And I recall Limbaugh saying that it is no big deal either. Don't these people understand that average Americans are getting screwed? When I drove by the gas station and saw that prices had just jumped .24 overnight I don't think of it as "no big deal".
Average income for the Middle Class and below has barely budged since 2000. Yet we have no lobby to support our needs. No voice that speaks up for us in Congress. And certainly no sympathy from the top.
Most of us will not make in a lifetime what these men (mostly) make in one year. There should be performance clauses in all of these contracts. You earn what you earn based on the profits of the company. There is no risk to these people. They lose their jobs and they all have these outlandish golden parachute clauses that allow them to rob the coffers on the way out.
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saneman
April 11, 2007, 11:24 a.m.
Can you imagine how much it costs to have a harem of girlfriends on the side? The cost of cocaine isn't cheap either.
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Cybnetic
April 11, 2007, 11:49 a.m.
yeah, no kidding. and when dothey deserve this kind of pay??
to much going on behind our backs... dont believe the media.. they get paid also
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TheVisionary
April 11, 2007, 12:11 p.m.
You know what the real pain in the ass is? Corporations are trying to find ways to cut expenses, which means the 4% Joe Blows are losing jobs. God forbid a CEO needs to downsize his paycheck in order to cut costs.
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Hamlet
April 11, 2007, 12:28 p.m.
Every person who works at a company should invest in its shares AND vote at shareholder meetings. Only 5% of the total (as a block) is a controlling share. Smart companies that really want to grow and be profitable pay employees partly in shares - they want their people invested and interested.
If the Enron shareholders had really paid attention, they themselves could have stopped the debacle. AND voted on the salaries of the board and directors! share-holding is not just putting your bucks in a box and waiting. It is POWER.
People have so much power they don't use!
I like what Michael Moore said: buy shares, and run for dog-catcher - power sharing starts at the grass roots. The repugs get it - they slowly took over everything from church boards to town halls and school comittees to radio stations and got into positions where they can appoint their sick anti-democratic unpatriotic buddies.
Nothing stopping the rest of us from doing the same except an attitude.
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cat646
April 11, 2007, 4:47 p.m.
Just a comment on the president spending $50 million to get a job that pays 400,000. It's not like they're spending their own money. They get money from people they are then beholden to after they get elected.