CEO’s Earning 300 Times More Than the Average Worker
EmailABC's Dan Arnall from New York:
The liberal think tank Institute for Policy Studies is out with a report on excessive executive pay in the biggest 20 TARP banks. The findings show that the top five executives at each of these big financial firms earned an average of $32 million each during the 2005 – 2008 time period.
The study has been published for the past 15 years, but this year the authors decided to focus on the pay of executives at the financial firms which got exceptional government assistance as the economy melted down last fall. Some of the highlights:
• Last year (2008) the CEO’s at the top 20 TARP recipients earned ($13.8 million) about 37% more than CEOs in other parts of the economy ($10.1 million).
• Many executives at these big firms got large stock grants early in 2009 – 10 of the top 20 firms have released details about their post-bailout stock option grants this year. Because of stock market improvements, those firms executives have seen the value of their stock option grants increase in value by$90 million in recent months.
• The overall CEO-to-worker pay gap is exceptionally high; S&P 500 CEOs in 2008 earned 319 times more than the average worker.
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It comes to no surprise.
The government definitely should have put stipulations on this TARP money.
Pay the money back first, before paying yourself 3l9% of the average worker.
I believe that to attract top people, you must offer top pay. However,3l9% seems a wee-bit high even in good times. In bad times – well, it is just ridiculous. Who’s the fool?
Posted by: ddg | September 2, 2009, 2:38 pm 2:38 pm
I believe the American people said overwhelmingly “no” to the bailouts. These enormous salaries and bonuses are a result of corporatism. We apparently need some sort of revolution in this country to get elected politicians to represent the will of the people.
Posted by: Huh | September 2, 2009, 3:17 pm 3:17 pm
Back in the 1960′s, C-level execs made 25 times the average/median salary of their employees. This should become the yard stick for all exec pay. No one is worth the amount of money the C-level execs get in most large companies. If you want a raise, you have to give a raise to all those below you…makes sense…share the weath and stop being so rotten to those who get you where you are – performance-wise.
Posted by: Laura W | September 2, 2009, 3:17 pm 3:17 pm
Obama needs to get off health care, and do something about compensation of corporate CEO’s and top executives.
There MUST BE a cap to these salaries, and it MUST be within reason, and the stock options need to GO AWAY. The stock options are causing widespread corruption in management, to manipulate the stock values. Bad for the country, bad for the investor in the long run, and bad for the world, in market stability.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | September 2, 2009, 5:46 pm 5:46 pm
Shame on the government and the CEO’s making the big bucks, when there are millions of Americans who have lost everything. I mean everything. My husband and I are one of those Americans who have lost our business, our credit has been ruined, and we are barely able to stay in our home we have worked 25 years for due to the real estate crash. Shame on and I mean shame on those CEO’s and executives.
Louise MacDonald
Posted by: Louise MacDonald | September 2, 2009, 6:59 pm 6:59 pm
When are the struggling little people in this country going to get a bail out?
Posted by: Louise MacDonald | September 2, 2009, 7:01 pm 7:01 pm
Yes I’m one of those people who believe that you have to reward top talent. I guess that’s why our economy is in such great shape. Because “top talent” did that. It’s OK for corporate boards to go ahead and reward those talented people with taxpayer’s hard-earned money. Sure, sounds fair to me!
Posted by: John K | September 2, 2009, 11:46 pm 11:46 pm
ddg: NOT 319 PERCENT. If you use $40000 as the average wage, 319 PERCENT is $127,600.00 or 1hundred27thousand 6hundred dollars.
It’s 319 TIMES the average worker. 319 TIMES $40000 is $12,760,000.00
That’s 12million760thousand dollars. That’s ONE HECK OF A DIFFERENCE.
The base amount of $40,000 I used is LESS that what the writer used.
Until Republicrats started getting paid by CEOs so highly, there used to be CAPS on the percent of profit CEOs could collect and, therefore their pay was much LESS. Now they are more on the line with LOAN SHARKS. Borrow $100 on Monday, pay back $200 on Tuesday. If you don’t have it on Tuesday, Pay $400 on Wednesday. When it gets high enough they break your legs, crush your fingers, kidnap your kid. Well the equivalent is INTEREST you to death and you lose everything you own so they can keep getting richer and richer and richer WITH all regulations scrapped by THEIR paid enablers and the PEOPLE be damned. Congress doesn’t NEED to be bothered with the little people when they’re getting the BIG checks AND the Supreme Court under Roberts is about to take ALL restrictions on corporate donations so the “little people” will have NO SAY AT ALL and the corps will be BUYING OUR EX REPRESENTATIVES. Even if we all refused to vote, all they have to do is get ONE more of their buds on Wall Street to vote than the other guy and that’s IT.
Congress won’t police itself, the courts were corrupted by Reagan AND both Bushes and we have a new President is BFF with some of the same people responsible for the collapse of the economy and loss of savings of millions and continues to REWARD them for their wonderful “special” jobs just like Bush with the Medals of Freedom for all his crooked despicable friends. “Wonderful Job Brownie, Giethner, Bernanke et al. Stick around forever and see just how much you can STEAL before you’re done and we’ll SHOW A LOT A LOVE FOR YA!”
It’s a REALLY disgusting situation and “we the people” can’t do a thing about it but complain to people who couldn’t care LESS what we have to say.
Posted by: Laura | September 3, 2009, 2:00 am 2:00 am
The derivative market has grown in the last 17 years from $5 trillion to $450 trillion. I don’t care if you call them TOXIC DERIVATIVES or Collateralized Debt Obligations, they should be REGULATED and reinstate the GLASS-STEAGALL ACT. Otherwise, things will just get worse.
Yours truly, LaVern I, Public Citizen and AARP Member
Posted by: LaVern Isely | September 3, 2009, 2:24 pm 2:24 pm
So, now that we know, what recourse do we have? I see where CEO’s of large insurance companies are leaving with huge chunks of money (in the millions of dollars). We can reduce insurance costs if the CEO’s wouldn’t leave with all the hard earned money paid in premiums by the insured. How about refunding the money to the insured or to pay their premiums for a year? They are slitting their own throats by raising premiums to where the average family can’t afford them.
Posted by: Penny | September 3, 2009, 2:56 pm 2:56 pm