Tuesday, January 02, 2007
If Wishes Were Horses, All the CEOs would.....
This is from the Seattle P-I. It's relevant to the ongoing discussion about workers and wages. The average CEO makes over 800 times the wages of the average worker, according to one site I came across. I thought it was higher. For what it's worth, Donald Trump makes something like $3,000,000 per episode of The Apprentice. Don Trump couldn't be worth that much if he was plated with 22 carat gold.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/297765_corppay2ed.html
Executive Pay: Yes, full disclosure
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Chief executives are valuable employees. Just ask them how valuable.
The Corporate Library's CEO Pay Survey shows that the median total compensation for CEOs increased by 30 percent in fiscal 2004, with the average increasing 91 percent. If you think that's a big number, consider that the average was boosted by 27 executives whose compensation increased 1,000 percent from their previous year's pay.
Corporate America long has argued that executive pay needs to be high because it attracts top talent -- and rewards performance. But the problem is many companies reward leaders whose performance was mediocre -- or worse.
Seattle native Franklin Raines, for example, was forced out from Fannie Mae because the company's accounting was misleading. The company already has announced a $9 billion restatement -- and that could go higher. Yet Raines will be paid a pension worth $1.4 million per year for life plus additional awards of stock.
The incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank, D-Mass., will introduce legislation that will require full disclosure for corporate premium pay.
"We are not taking anybody's pay or even setting any limits; we just believe these owners should know how their employees (management) are being paid and have some ability to do something about it if they so desire," Frank said.
We agree. Full disclosure, it seems to us, is a minimum standard for a publicly traded company.
© 1998-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/297765_corppay2ed.html
Executive Pay: Yes, full disclosure
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Chief executives are valuable employees. Just ask them how valuable.
The Corporate Library's CEO Pay Survey shows that the median total compensation for CEOs increased by 30 percent in fiscal 2004, with the average increasing 91 percent. If you think that's a big number, consider that the average was boosted by 27 executives whose compensation increased 1,000 percent from their previous year's pay.
Corporate America long has argued that executive pay needs to be high because it attracts top talent -- and rewards performance. But the problem is many companies reward leaders whose performance was mediocre -- or worse.
Seattle native Franklin Raines, for example, was forced out from Fannie Mae because the company's accounting was misleading. The company already has announced a $9 billion restatement -- and that could go higher. Yet Raines will be paid a pension worth $1.4 million per year for life plus additional awards of stock.
The incoming chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Barney Frank, D-Mass., will introduce legislation that will require full disclosure for corporate premium pay.
"We are not taking anybody's pay or even setting any limits; we just believe these owners should know how their employees (management) are being paid and have some ability to do something about it if they so desire," Frank said.
We agree. Full disclosure, it seems to us, is a minimum standard for a publicly traded company.
© 1998-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
