Mitt Romney Made $6,400 An Hour At Bain Capital While Creating Mountain of Low-Paying Jobs: Report

On the campaign trail, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney often touts his role at the private equity firm Bain Capital in helping found Staples and Sports Authority and turning around other companies as evidence that he knows how to create jobs. But many of those jobs pay very low wages, Bloomberg News first reported on Tuesday.

Many workers at Staples, Sports Authority, and Domino's Pizza earn wages below the poverty line for a family of three. Sales associates at Staples make an average of $8.49 per hour, and sales associates at Sports Authority make an average of $8.96 per hour, according to Glassdoor.com, a site which tracks wages at 150,000 companies. Altogether, that amounts to less than $19,000 per year. These wages are less than the average in those industries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Meanwhile, Romney enriched himself while leading Bain Capital, amassing a fortune of more than $200 million, which translates to roughly $6,400 an hour.

Workers at Domino's and Bright Horizons, which Romney helped turn around at Bain, don't make much either. Delivery drivers at Domino's earn an average of $7.66 per hour, according to Glassdoor.com, which adds up to less than $16,000 per year. Teachers at Bright Horizons make an average of $12.94 per hour, according to Glassdoor.com, amounting to about $27,000 per year.

Romney's record does include middle-class jobs. At Steel Dynamics, a steel company in Indiana that Bain invested in during his tenure, the average wage for steel manufacturing programmers is $51,1441 per year, according to Glassdoor.com.

Romney claims that he created more than 100,000 jobs at Bain Capital. But that figure only highlights recent employment figures at three successful companies -- Staples, Sports Authority, and Domino's -- while leaving out the many jobs that Bain eliminated at other companies and giving Romney undue credit for jobs created after he left Bain in 1999.

During Romney's tenure as chief executive, four out of the 10 top companies that Bain acquired went bankrupt within a few years, according to The Los Angeles Times. Though those firms lost thousands of jobs, Bain investors profited from three out of the four firms that went bankrupt.

A spokesman for Romney told Bloomberg News that his experience at Bain creating jobs at Staples gives him the skills “to focus on job creation and turn around our nation’s faltering economy.”

Comments

[Ryartz]

09:47 PM on 07/23/2012

I'm sorry, but more research needs to be done before you go out attacking people's jobs and their pay. Domino's Pizza... really? You're going to attack a company that primarily highers part-time employee's? Drivers typically make (I manage stores) $16 to $24 per hour, the schedule is extremely flexible, and drivers usually have another job to pair with it.... Did I mention that Domino's is independently owned? Domino's pizza is a franchise! Mitt has NO CONTROL over pay. It's not up to him or any corporate CEO. It's all dictated by independent franchisee's... In fact based on how strict Corporate is, they push franchisee's to keep hiring employee's to maintain strict service and image guidelines.
GM's average $600 a week plus bonus of up to $1200 a month
Drivers get minimum wage + Tips and mileage.
(BTW the delivery charge pays for insurance, $1700 a month, gas and additional labor, we see little to no profit off the charge)
Insiders usually make $.50 more than minimum wage
A.M's average $9.00-$11.00
Next time ask the workers before you trust the internet.

[rbmesqnm]

10:29 AM on 05/08/2012

Newt was right Governor Romney is a liar.

[advthinker]

02:33 PM on 04/13/2012

What an idiotic article! The executive salary will never be near or the same as a low level worker. Let's remove all incentive to reach for the next level and make everyone the same. What a joke!

[Nonpartay]

04:00 AM on 02/29/2012

While Romney's method for extracting wealth out of troubled companies and throwing people into poverty at the same time is reprehensible, he is simply the perfect symbol for what Republicans want to do for the country. He wanted to do the same thing for the auto industry. He'd like the same thing for the foreclosure crisis. Voting for any Republican for President is like putting a fox in charge of the hen house. Not a good idea. Really. 

[punkin14]

06:22 PM on 02/28/2012

And what jobs has Obama created that didn't require taxpayer funds? He's never produced a job on his own in his life.

[gerorem]

08:35 PM on 02/28/2012

President Obama never gained wealth from other people's misery.

[Nonpartay]

04:09 AM on 02/29/2012

He saved the auto manufacturers and it didn't cost taxpayers a cent. It actually made us money since they paid the loans back with interest. Meanwhile, they ended up saving over a million jobs, and jobs keep being added, 200,000 in the last few months, all of which produce people who pay taxes and who are also able to buy things and stimulate the economy even more, causing even more people to be able to work. The result of one job is not just the one job, it has consequences that spread from that one job outward. A person with a job is not drawing any public assistance, saving the taxpayer money. That person pays taxes, buys goods and services, and causes others to be able to thrive as well. You have no idea what you're talking about. The government is the biggest employer in the country when you include the military, and all those jobs support small and big businesses by the fact that people have money in their pockets to spend. 

President Obama was a community organizer working with churches serving the poor, a civil rights attorney, and a college instructor, as well as a State Senator and a US Senator. He also wrote two best-selling books. I guess you don't consider any of that stuff work? Really? Why was he paid for doing all those things then?

[Chubbster]

06:13 PM on 02/28/2012

If you don't have an education you are screwed. Even today.

[demilieu]

05:47 PM on 02/28/2012

When we hit 30 cents an hour like in China, our unemployment problem will be solved.

[chris hatala]

05:27 PM on 02/28/2012

The Evil Emperor, Bishop Romney.

[NHGranite]

05:22 PM on 02/28/2012

We have been giving it all away to China, and now we are in deep hock to them. Build your next factory in China, they don't give a flying leap about the environment or their workers, or frankly us. Yes, there are laws, but their system is monolithic, remember they are Communists; one branch! Remember the tainted sheetrock and pet food?

[ljimlong]

05:05 PM on 02/28/2012

Gee, why am I not surprised?

[SimianNation]

04:51 PM on 02/28/2012

People seem to not want to realize that this is what capitalism is all about. The goal of capitalism is to "create wealth" through making more money than you spend. If you can pay someone $10/hour, while making $25/hour off of whatever it is you are paying them to do, you have made $15/hour for every hour you employ them.

If you purchase a company (be it through a leverage buyout, cash up front, or most likely a secured loan from a banking friend, or even government loan assistance), and find that the various company assets are worth more if they are sold separately, as opposed to reselling the company as a whole after fixing what ails it, then that is what will be done. The jobs lost in such a move are just a by-product of capitalism.

BUT, like Trump and the massive amount of low wage hotel jobs that he has created, if you can take a company, fix what is broken in it, keep it running, and pay employees to do this at a lower wage, you profit as well. The profit margin is the goal. The line between investment and return is all that the "job creators" care about. If the profit margin can be increased by lowering wages of the workers, you increase your profit.

"Job creators" do not care that you need to make more money to survive. They do not care about you past your clocking in on time.

[Christian L]

06:34 PM on 02/28/2012

The goal of capitalism is to maximize consumer satisfaction by producing the goods and services they demand. If a company maximizes profits by sending jobs to China then we have a choice to boycott or not buy that product or service.

Here in the U.S. we have greatest opportunity to own business and create wealth. No the country in history of the world has created more wealth. The problem is that people want more things without working for it because of laziness and idleness which is a cultural epidemic.

It is greed and covetousness which our the primary problem for all people, not just the rich. This is a moral problem. People want more and more stuff. This is at the heart of the issue. Capitalism feeds the demand. People are greedy and want more and more. People want either more money to buy more stuff, or the ability to buy more stuff for less.

The Unions respond to the demands of the people who want pay raises in order to buy more stuff. This is one reason we see many jobs sent to China. Also, the demand and access for cheaper stuff is why we have companies like Walmart.

Staple is the Walmart for business supply and Sports Authority is the Walmart for the sport industry. Both of these companies are owned by Mitt Romney and Bain Capital.

Mitt Romney has a record for creating Jobs in China while destroying jobs in America.

[SimianNation]

07:33 PM on 02/28/2012

"The goal of capitalism is to maximize consumer satisfaction by producing the goods and services they demand"

Wrong! The maximization of consumer satisfaction (through the goods and services they demand) is the key to gaining market share. The nice thing about monopoly's is that they do not have to worry what sht they feed the consumer, the consumer is bound to accept it. Companies MUST cater to the demands of the consumer, so that they can garner more market share than their competition.

"The problem is that people want more things without working for it because of laziness and idleness which is a cultural epidemic."

To blame the failure of the corporations to adapt to the market, through re-investment or what have you, on the consumer is just lubricious. In a "Free Market" you cannot have it both ways. If the consumer does not buy your product, it isn't the fault of the consumer, it is the fault of the company (either the products is not desired, is inadequate, is over priced etc). Because a product is not sold is never the fault of the consumer. That is like me complaining that the reason that you are not buying my house, is because you are lazy.

[SimianNation]

07:42 PM on 02/28/2012

"It is greed and covetousness which our the primary problem for all people, not just the rich. This is a moral problem. People want more and more stuff. This is at the heart of the issue. Capitalism feeds the demand."

Wanting more products is not a moral flaw. It is also not a matter of greed. And, of course, capitalism is a mechanism to feed the wants and desires of a population. Now, with Unions, it isn't that they just respond to people wanting more money, it is that they are the collective voice against the exploitation of the worker. Unions are formed so that in the drive by the corporations to increase their profit margins, they do not rely solely on the lowering of the workers wages, to increase the profit margin.

Without the collective voice of the worker, corporations could hire, fire, and pay whatever they wanted to pay. The worker's working conditions would be minimal, and a slave state would exist.

The reason that American corporations have moved overseas, is not because of the Unions, but because of the corporate greed to expand their ROI is increased with the extremely lower wages they can pay overseas. And, the products that can be produced in China (where there are 1 + billion workers) are far less expensive to produce because they will work for practically nothing.

[ruolivert]

04:34 PM on 02/28/2012

I'm not Romney fan but this is a little rediculous. When McDonalds hired all those minimum wage jobs last Spring its hailed as a victory for Obama, since jobs are important. Romney is shown to have created jobs but because the jobs don't make a lot of money its a bad thing.
That's called doublethink people

[light and truth]

05:18 PM on 02/28/2012

How many people lost their jobs at all the Mom & Pop stationery stores that were put out of business by Staples? How many local Pizzerias were destroyed when Dominoes came to town? He needs to subtract all those lost jobs before crowing about all the jobs he created at these chains. Is it really better to wipe out all the small family-run businesses and replace them with sub-poverty level jobs at some national chain with all the money going to some greedy 1%ers?

[soundog]

05:51 PM on 02/28/2012

Think about the companies Bain's bought, fired everyone and sold off the land, buildings and equipment to make a profit, then retooling the company in Latin America or Asia. The people he has fired or lost their pa/ma businesses, overshadows the jobs he has created - period.

[uniquindividual]

04:32 PM on 02/28/2012

Lest we forget, his Bain capital proceeds continue to pay passive dividends. Most of his income now comes from the companies Bain delt with, therefore, the hourly figure rises...

Every hour!

(Another reason to bring back the estate tax - Without it, the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few will unavoidably get more stilted.)

[Gottlieb]

04:35 PM on 02/28/2012

President Theodore Roosevelt warned of this danger of concentrated wealth and was called a traitor to his class by the moneyed elites.

[Nonpartay]

04:17 AM on 02/29/2012

The more I hear about Teddy, the more I like him. :) He was kind of an eccentric, but he was terrific. We need more like him, that's for sure.

[efmo]

04:32 PM on 02/28/2012

Well, I guess Romney can turn around the economy for the top earning 400 families in the US since they've been, um, suffering, too, right? After all, I guess if the economy hadn't tanked in 2008, think how well they'd have been doing! Obviously, we're focused on the wrong income groups, people!!

[Gottlieb]

04:41 PM on 02/28/2012

"I hope we shall . . . crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations." Thomas Jefferson

"As riches increase and accumulate in few hands . . . the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard." Alexander Hamilton

"Of all forms of tyranny the least attractive and the most vulgar is the tyranny of mere wealth." Theodore Roosevelt

"As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." Abraham Lincoln

[efmo]

09:40 PM on 03/01/2012

And yet we have a majority of Americans who would give them even more power (those who vote for republicans and a fair number of democrats to be fair) or those who would remove all govt. regulations keeping them in check (the ron paul/libertarian wing.)

[Nonpartay]

04:20 AM on 02/29/2012

Two studies, one by Harvard, the other by Berkeley, measured income inequality in all 50 states. They found that states with greater income inequality suffered from all of the following problems:

Higher death rates for all age groups.
Higher rates of homicide.
Higher rates of violent crime.  
Higher costs per person for police protection­.  
Higher rates of incarcerat­ion.  
Higher rates of unemployme­nt.  
A higher percentage of people receiving income assistance and food stamps.
More high-schoo­l dropouts.  
Less state funds spent per person on education.  
Fewer books per person in the schools.  
Poorer educationa­l performanc­e, including worse reading and math skills.
Higher infant mortality rates.  
Higher heart disease.  
Higher cancer rates.  
A greater percentage of people without medical insurance.  
A greater proportion of babies born with low birth weight.  
A greater proportion of the population unable to work because of disabilities.  
A higher proportion of the population using tobacco.  
A higher proportion of the population being sedentary (inactive)­.  
Higher costs per-person for medical care.

This list didn’t mention alcoholism, but I’ll bet that goes up, too.

[efmo]

09:35 PM on 03/01/2012

And yet I heard that a majority of Americans think the wealthy should only pay 30% or less in income taxes (I guess that includes capital gains & inheritance?)

[Kenz300]

04:03 PM on 02/28/2012

The top 1% want it all and the Republicans are out to help them get it.

[teagle01]

04:50 PM on 02/28/2012

And most of em dont have much at all!!

[realitybriar]

05:10 PM on 02/28/2012

They already have it. Where have you been?