Jamie Dimon At DealBook Conference: Wall Street Pay Caps Would Put 'Free Society' At Risk

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of the country's largest bank by assets, says that regulating Wall Street pay could put us on the road to communism.

"We all want an equitable society. We need to have a conversation about what makes it equitable," the JPMorgan Chase CEO said at The New York Times DealBook conference on Wednesday. "You can go do it the way that Cuba tried. Okay, well, then it will be equitable, but everyone won't have much."

"If you don't want a free society, then start dictating what compensation can be," he added.

This is not the first time that Dimon has dismissed concerns about Wall Street pay. "We are going to pay competitively," he said in February, according to The Wall Street Journal. "We need top talent, you cannot run this business on second-rate talent."

In the same February appearance, Dimon said that newspaper industry pay is "just damned outrageous," according to Bloomberg. "Worse than that, you [the media] don’t even make any money!"

The average reporter was paid $43,780 per year in 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, the average JPMorgan employee made $341,552 last year, and Dimon was paid roughly $23 million, according to Bloomberg.

CEOs in a variety of industries are making hundreds of times more money than their employees. Check out some of the CEOs whose pay is most out of whack below:

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• 10. PepsiCo

  CEO-to-employee pay ratio: 322:1 CEO: Indra K. Nooyi (Credit: <a href="http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income/fortune-50">PayScale</a>)

• 9. United Technologies Corporation

  CEO-to-employee pay ratio: 326:1 CEO: Louis R. Chênevert (Credit: <a href="http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income/fortune-50">PayScale</a>)

• 8. AT&T

  CEO-to-employee pay ratio: 342:1 CEO: Randall L. Stephenson (Credit: <a href="http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income/fortune-50">PayScale</a>) AT&T said in a statement: "We are an employer of choice providing high-quality middle class jobs with highly competitive wages and benefits that are among the best in America and significantly greater than our competitors’. AT&T benefits are comprehensive and more extensive than those offered by most employers, including our competitors in the cable industry. And in an era when many companies are either curtailing or abandoning benefits, we continue to provide great benefits – including market-competitive health and welfare, pension and savings plans – to 1.2 million employees, retirees and their dependents."

• 7. IBM

  CEO-to-employee pay ratio: 349:1 CEO until December 2011: Samuel J. Palmisano (Credit: <a href="http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income/fortune-50">PayScale</a>)

• 6. Medco

  CEO-to-employee pay ratio: 431:1 CEO until Express Scripts acquired Medco in 2012: David B. Snow, Jr. (Credit: <a href="http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income/fortune-50">PayScale</a>)

• 5. CVS Caremark Corporation

  CEO-to-employee pay ratio: 456:1 CEO until last year: Thomas M. Ryan (Credit: <a href="http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income/fortune-50">PayScale</a>) CVS said in a statement: "Our executive compensation is appropriate and in line with industry standards and with the company’s overall performance. We continue to deliver strong financial results in a challenging environment, performing favorably against our peer group on several critical measures including revenue growth and total shareholder return."

• 4. McKesson

  CEO-to-employee pay ratio: 537:1 CEO: John H. Hammergren (Credit: <a href="http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income/fortune-50">PayScale</a>)

• 3. Verizon

  CEO-to-employee pay ratio: 613:1 CEO until June 2011: Ivan G. Seidenberg (Credit: <a href="http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income/fortune-50">PayScale</a>)

• 2. Walmart Stores

  CEO-to-employee ratio: 717:1 CEO: Michael T. Duke (Credit: <a href="http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income/fortune-50" target="_hplink">PayScale</a>)

• 1. UnitedHealth Group

  CEO-to-employee pay ratio: 1,737:1 CEO: Stephen J. Hemsley (Credit: <a href="http://www.payscale.com/ceo-income/fortune-50">PayScale</a>)

Comments

[jasherrin]

10:28 PM on 01/09/2013

Something rateling your cage Dimon?Go to jail ,find a reason to pt him there !Break up these tooo big to fail banks,Then split up Wall street and put a financial Branch on each cost .Then regulate even further.And hey guys the more of us go into Credit unions the sooner interest rates will start coming back up! Moat of em have FREE checking an dlower interest rates on Gold and Platinum card/STAMPEDE!

[rkemani]

04:47 PM on 01/04/2013

I do not mind bonuses and reward for skills etc. but I do not like threats. These guys are always threatening to leave. They are afraid of "losing" talent. But WHERE are planning to go. I wish they give us a list of countries which have higher earnings for CEOs. And it is all rubber stamped by the Board since they choose its members. Thank goodness for pension fund and some hedge find managers who protest, at times effectively as large shareholders. Individual shareholders like me are powerless.

[jasherrin]

10:39 PM on 01/09/2013

Do YOU get bonuses like thet do?for non performance !Shake it up people NO one deserves a 23 million dollar bonus on top of god knows what for regular pay.What is your porfolio paying you?23 million?You worked hard for your money ,these guys are never around cause they are using all you guys money to cruise exotic places and more .They are making billions while you get .50 % interest !Yeah America, land of the legal Rip off artists and uncontrolled legal &illegal immigration/

[kidkolor]

11:58 PM on 12/14/2012

Fat Cats like Jamie Dimon have been living in a twisted reality for so long they think it is normal

[fredgladys]

06:19 AM on 12/14/2012

Dimon: . "We need top talent, you cannot run this business on second-rate talent."

Well they have been doing a wonderful job so far.

[DobermanMom]

12:47 AM on 12/14/2012

How about this, Jamie? You pay your tellers 1/200 of what you make per year. Say you make $25,000,000.00 this next year, bogus bonuses included, then your tellers would make $125,000.00 per year. That would get the economy rolling. The tellers would be able to live well with a moderate amount of disposable income to buy the stuff that people are selling, including shares of stock in your bank. The problem with your bank is that the tellers are STILL making roughly what they made 30 years ago while your pay continues to skyrocket.

[arizonasoccermom]

12:19 AM on 12/14/2012

"We all want an equitable society. We need to have a conversation about what makes it equitable," the JPMorgan Chase CEO said at The New York Times DealBook conference on Wednesday. "You can go do it the way that Cuba tried. Okay, well, then it will be equitable, but everyone won't have much."

Pay your fair share of taxes Mr. Whinin' Dimon!

[nyjjc]

11:38 PM on 12/13/2012

I agree that there should be no pay cap. However, do you know what there should be Mr. Dimon? Far, FAR higher taxes on people like you AND the businesses you run.

Why do you object to that? Because you'd have to get wealthier the old fashioned way - building value in your businesses - not bankrupting them and selling the for profit or bankrupting them and asking for a taxpayer bailout.

[Janzee12000]

09:58 PM on 12/13/2012

This bank should be cut-off the discount window and no more quantitative easing.. You're ON your own... The shareholders would be asking for this jokers head at the end of the next quater. Hey Jamie..., shaddup!

[clearasmud]

08:53 PM on 12/13/2012

How truly sad.

[Ban KKiller]

08:07 PM on 12/13/2012

Hang the banksters. I used to wonder how "those" people in the middle east got radicalized. Now I know. Banksters get away with crimes where you and I would go to jail. NO JUSTICE equals TRYANNY. So....if you have nothing to lose why would you not agree to an idea that seemed stupid when you did have something to live for? When you have nothing left to lose you become VERY dangerous. JD is a criminal running a criminal enterprise that is too big to jail. Do you need a list of banking crimes? JUST today look at HSBC and tell me there is justice in America....there is not. The rich HAVE taken over and YOU are a slave. Banksters "pay"? How about justice?

[francisbono]

08:01 PM on 12/13/2012

Wow! Romney (47%), Ryan (makers and takers,( 70%), Kochs/Adelson attempts to purchase an election, and now Jamie the Whiner in Chief (road to communism) are giving us all the window to those private, country club thoughts of the weathy. Folks, these are not poor choices of words or mistatements poorly worded. These are the core belief of many, many trust fund babies who masquerade as "self made men." Keep them thoughts a comin' and we may actually be on the road to true reform of out financial systerms.

[rickthepainter]

07:58 PM on 12/13/2012

what was the multiple before trickle down ?

[clearasmud]

08:54 PM on 12/13/2012

LOL. Fanned.

[Joe Cass]

07:43 PM on 12/13/2012

Pitchforks and Torches.

[Busterx4x]

06:45 PM on 12/13/2012

"We need top talent, you cannot run this business on second-rate talent."

Apparently, Jamie Dimon is confusing "talent" with having a humongus set of balls.

[DobermanMom]

12:50 AM on 12/14/2012

Why not? You've been running it on second rate talent. You call that clown in London top talent?

[jasherrin]

11:10 PM on 01/09/2013

Does he really /Yum .cooked nicely on a Pitchfork?Only thing is...If we try to take back our Government, when its is obiously in serious trouble, we will be considered traitors even tho our Constitution clearly states we have the right to take over this disfunctional system.God all theses pensions,Military and congressional.and where does it state that congress gets to set its own raises ,arent they supposed to get a stipend?Defense secretaries flying home every nite to California .balance the budget ?Its a piggy bank for every Govt agency forevery foreign Govt who hates us and we give billions to .Gotta STOP

[Busterx4x]

06:40 PM on 12/13/2012

"We need to have a conversation about what makes it equitable," the JPMorgan Chase CEO said.

No Jamie, we don't need a "conversation". We need to regulate the living snot out of your pay since it is blindingly obvious that the market by itself is not capable of regulating it and therefore is not being efficient at allocating resources..