Outrage Growing Over Executive Pay

The public's indignation over lavish executive pay has rippled beyond the circles of activist investors and corporate governance watchdogs, who for years have wrung their hands over compensation practices. It has spread even beyond grass-roots community organizers and public policy think tanks to people who make their living in the financial industry, like money manager William Fitzpatrick.

"This is a topic that doesn't really get a whole lot of attention during more benign economic times, but clearly this is something that really got away from us. As a profession, we really kind of fell asleep at the switch here," said Fitzpatrick, who helps oversee about $1 billion at Optique Capital Management in Milwaukee.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[PT6]

After a lot of analysis I conclude that to restore AMERICA's self-respect and the respect of the World doing this is important!

Over 40,500 people have already signed this!

Rep. Kucinich of Ohio had this to say on CNN:

http://kucinich.us/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2634&Itemid=1

Please take a moment to read about this important issue, and sign the petition. It takes just 30 seconds, but can truly make a difference.

http://www.democrats.com/pardon?

[blueskybigstar]

Important, don't let them get away with it.

http://www.democrats.com/pardon

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/13/partisanship/index.html

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/11/13/torture_commission/

[rollingdivision]

If a company takes one dollar of bailout money all bonuses and perks should immediately stop for all employees.

[blueskybigstar]

I like the way you put that.

[PT6]

If they Deserved such HIGH PAY PACKAGES this would not be an issue, but they have proven CLEARLY that some KNOW LESS than common sense people on the Street!

Salary Caps on Executives should be applied to every company receiving Taxpayer BAIL OUT funds!

Unless you can somehow justify the need for $10 to $100 million paintings and LAVISH Parties it is NOT clear that anyone should be paid over $5 or $10 million, and even that seems excessive!

If you have run your company so badly you need a BAILOUT then take the CUT and that goes for Financial and Auto Executives who need to prove they want to be PART of the Solution!

[Veri]

This is what Capitalism is all about, Rubes! Jesus, what did you expect. Fair and equitable? Please, read the history of capitalism. Keep dreaming of "fair and equitable" Capitalism. It does not exist. You are buying into a fairy tale if you think so.

It...

Is...

That...

Simple.

And if you do not get the concept of Capitalism as an exploitative system, you deserve to lose.

[PT6]

IF YOU TAKE BAIL OUTS YOU LOST THE RIGHTS OF CAPITALISM!

A whole new set of RULES kicks in once you have managed your company into the need for a BAILOUT!

[Veri]

Jesus. Just no socialism... wait... Bush... just... offered... Wall Street... the largest WELFARE CHECK IN HISTORY. Hmmmm....

[smallfish]

yeah i have been outraged for about 15 years at least. where they heck have you all been?
watching your favorite football teams while slaving away in the cubicle giving each other high 5's
for being able to work overtime to pay for your 30 year mortgage. gee what a wonderful culture(scam).
but now the overtime is no longer there. if you get laid off where are you going to go, all the jobs have gone to china. oh no i better start thinking. hey wait a minute, why do ceo's own multiple million dollar houses and fly in private jets.............."the adventures of american blockhead" .........the cliff hanger....will american blockhead learn to think????? stay tuned?????

[Veri]

I prefer 'The Simpsons'

[MagicalPossibilities]

It is absolutely ridiculous that an executive can make 500x or more what the average employee makes. But it is positively outrageous that these skunks can do a piss-poor job and still get a big fat severance check. The rest of us, if we do a lousy job, we are fired. If we are lucky, with two weeks pay. No severance, no unemployment.
Now, it is BEYOND THE PALE that any company that received taxpayer money should be able to pay bonuses or severance packages.
Executive bonuses, at the very least, should be in the form of stock options. That way these clowns only receive compensation when the company is doing well.

[TXfemmom]

Everyone gripes about unions, and sometimes they do need to be somewhat more flexible, but the executives make twenty times what they should make.

[Haditup2here]

Exactly !! If it wasn't for unions, everyone (union and non-union members) would be working for pennies on a dollar like those in Mexico and China.

[bluekatz]

When people balk at the unions they don't understand in many cases they were exercising the right to get fair wages. Maybe the unions needs to reorganize. Yes there are pros and cons of unions but it made the company pay attention to the workers.

I guess people need to research these companies with excess bonus and salary and start a boycot.ting by not buying. Until you make the shareholders cringe and eat up their profits then they will continue to rake in the perks.

[Georgia1992]

I remember back in 1993 to 2001 when I worked in corporate America, I've always thought about as well as asked my colleagues how they felt about these super-high ridiculous executive salaries and perks? I didn't get an answer, but I vividly remember that I received some looks from my colleagues as to why I asked such a question. In 1993 was my first time working in the private sector. I've always been in the public sector. I hadn't been working in corporate as long as my colleagues. I was a newbie, wet behind the ears. I wasn't trying to stir up a stench, I was just wanting to know if it had crossed their minds and what they thought about it. I made an alright salary along with medical benefits, unlimited educational benefits, travel, and whatever else they threw at their employees, but I noticed the huge pay gap between executives and the worker-Bs that didn't appear right to me. I always felt that not one executive is worth that much in salary. To me their salaries and perks were highway robbery. Now what's funny is that people are outraged. I've was outraged in the early 90s, but I felt that I was the lone ranger and only talking to myself. Thank you.

[jukesgrrl]

I spent 18 years at a Fortune 100 company and I asked the same question every time we got another high-level exec. "Why is he worth that many million?" The answer I always got was, "If we didn't pay him (it was always a white him) that, then he'd go to our competitors and we need his genius expertise." I guess that would be the expertise that put my Fortune 100 company right out of business. Not only did those execs not know anything, they didn't even know enough to LISTEN TO THEIR EMPLOYEES who dealt front-line with their customers.

[JBS]

Your coworkers were probably afraid you'd ask 'em to join a union and they'd end up getting fired.

[pcplz]

How much money is enough?? How can any one person justify making that much money? As my mother would say..."children are starving around the world, and you want to waste 1$ on candy?"

Even now, during this horrible time for the country, these low lifes are unwilling to give up their bonuses....not to mention the millions paid to them yearly but the bonuses on top. May they rot in hell.

Wikipedia should define greed by the name Carl Icahn.

[ErnestineBass]

Hmmm...I see an emerging market for ex-Blackwater employees...and a new word in the next OE Dictionary..."Rushed-Up".

[DXM]

Let's reintroduce the 90% income tax bracket on all income over $1 or 2 million. If you can't live comfortably on that kind of money each year in this country, you've got problems that money can't solve.

[bluekatz]

They are the reason as to why the IRS is so screwed up. The IRS will go after the working man/woman while these pricks get away scot free. They could hide money in offshore accounts with no penalties. They can live on that amount its just their value of rich is built around material goods which depreciates. Truly if they had to live below those means they would probably die.

[DMcD]

The French used to have a very effective and 'slicy' way of dealing these kinds of theiving low-lifes. Until this problem is suitably resolved , these corporate failures will continue. Their salary and bonus structires act as a self-defeating incentive to white collar crime and the 'gutting' of otherwise prosperous , concerns. "Free-market" forces be damned , if these guys aren't put under control , there won't be 'any market' left.

[NWBrunette]

This is easy to deal with. Implement a tax on high-earners in the financial industry retroactive to Jan. 2008 and continuing for the next 3 years. Any income (bonuses, benefits, cash, tuition for the kids, whatever) in excess of 1 million is taxed at 60%. Any income in excess of 2 million is taxed at 80%. Sit back and watch the bonuses dry up.