CEO pay: Sky high gets even higher

[Algorem]

http://money.cnn.com/2005/08/26/news/economy/ceo_pay/

CEO pay: Sky high gets even higher
A new report shows top-dog pay bites shareholders, and alleges war profiteering among some CEOs.
August 30, 2005: 11:13 AM EDT
By Jeanne Sahadi, CNN/Money senior writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – If sky-high executive pay at publicly traded companies gives you vertigo, you might want to read this sitting down.

In 2004, the ratio of average CEO pay to the average pay of a production (i.e., non-management) worker was 431-to-1, up from 301-to-1 in 2003, according to "Executive Excess," an annual report released Tuesday by the liberal research groups United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies.

That's not the highest ever. In 2001, the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay hit a peak of 525-to-1.

Still, it's quite a leap year over year, and it ranks on the high end historically. In 1990, for instance, CEOs made about 107 times more than the average worker, while in 1982, the average CEO made only 42 times more...

[Mithras61]

1. Looks to me like shrub has...

made the pie higher...

[LongTomH]

2. Links?

Could someone post links for United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies?

[Mithras61]

5. Links you requested

United for a Fair Economy:
http://www.faireconomy.org/

Instiutute for Policy Studies:
http://www.ips-dc.org/

[Pirate Smile]

3. This article has a companion piece.

"Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent

By JENNIFER C. KERR
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; 11:10 AM

WASHINGTON -- The nation's poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.

-snip-
Overall, there were 37 million people living in poverty, up 1.1 million people from 2003.

Asians were the only ethnic group to show a decline in poverty _ from 11.8 percent in 2003 to 9.8 percent last year. The poverty rate among the elderly declined as well, from 10.2 percent in 2003 to 9.8 percent last year.

The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold _ 11.3 percent of the population.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/30/AR2005083000613.html

[Algorem]

4. US defence CEO pay up 200% since 2001

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=59369

15:51 AEST Tue Aug 30 2005
AAP

Chief executives at top US defence contractors have received a 200 per cent pay hike since 2001 compared to a 7 per cent raise for other CEOs at large companies.

In its annual look at CEO compensation, the nonprofit liberal Institute for Policy Studies found the increase in executive pay at 34 publicly traded US companies that are among the top defence contractors far outstripped the pay raises won by other executives or by military personnel.

The study excluded pay of such defence contractors as universities, joint ventures, privately held companies, companies headquartered outside the United States, and companies that received less than 10 per cent of their revenues from defence.

"Since Sept. 11 (2001), the ratio between median pay for defence CEOs and pay for military generals has increased to 23 to 1, up from 12 to 1 just three years earlier," the institute said in its 12th annual survey...

[UpInArms]

6. thanks for posting this

here's a link for some history

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Timeline.htm

TIMELINES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION:

This page features two timelines: the first for general events of the Roaring 20s and the Great Depression, the second for leading economic indicators.

The importance of these timelines cannot be emphasized enough. Seeing the order in which events actually occurred dispels many myths about the Great Depression. One of the greatest of these myths is that government intervention was responsible for its onset. Truly massive intervention began only under the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, who was sworn in after the worst had already hit. Although his New Deal did not cure it, all the leading economic indicators improved on his watch.

But don't take my word for it -- here is the raw data:

...more...

[Dora]

7. God damn them. Damn them please. Then let's tax them.

Let's tax the the opportunistic motherfuckers. I'm so sick of their shit. Take, take, take, and take some goddamn more. They're obese with wealth and it's time to put them on a goddamn diet.

Tax those payroll leeches until they cry, then tax them harder until they bleed. Don't stop until the bleeding slows to a trickle.

431 to 1 pay ratio: that's just wicked. Shove your "conservatism" up your asses, wealthwhores. I hope you choke on your dinner tonight.

[ninkasi]

8. I second that!

I agree 100%, Dora. This country is going downhill fast, and it is immoral for the government to be shoveling even more riches into the piles of wealth the rich already sit on. Enough is enough.

[slay]

9. I'm really surprised that people aren't up in arms over this

Have people just given up and submitted to a life of serving their corporate masters? If we don't rise up and fight these greedy criminal scum known as CEO's - they'll continue to screw us at every turn. :(

[tom_paine]

18. Yes, the Imperial Subjects of America, by and large, have accepted

their (our) chains. It FEELS SO GOOD not to have to think, to know that a Fearless and Godly Fuhrer is guiding your desinty.

The next 30 years shoudl be very interesting in the same way a train wreck is interesting.

God Help Us and the poor bastards who will be alive in Amerika 2050.

[slay]

22. It really is quite scary

people have so much fear that they choose to let others do their thinking for them. I know living without someone telling you what to do and how to think can be scary - I do it every day, as I dare say most people who post here do as well. My emotions range from sadness, to anger, to being relieved that I'm not one of the brainwashed masses. One day, in the future, should we actually survive this mess, schools will teach about a time when people gave up their freedoms in exchange for brainwashing corporate news that tells them what to think and the right to watch American Idol. Unfreakinreal. :(

[moof]

10. Freakin Looters

[melissinha]

13. you

beat me to it.

see my post below.

[shadowknows69]

11. in 2001

when our whole economy was nearly crippled by 9/11 CEO's made the highest wages ever. We live in a country of Kings. When's the revolution?

[melissinha]

12. Its State Sanctioned Looting

I don't really care about all the people in New Orleans LA who are looting stores for damaged goods.. its when the government itself provides contracts to their close friends and who force legislation that beenfit the CEOs.... that makes me sick... its the looting of the treasury and of the livelihoods of Americans that makes me sick.

I mean this sick MFers could give up a couple millions and give all their employees a little raise... but no this is the United States of Selfishness.

[Mithras61]

14. If you think this is bad...

you ought to read through "Perfectly Legal: The covert campaign to rig our tax system to benefit the super rich – and cheat everybody else" by David Cay Johnston

updated the URL.

[melissinha]

15. that too

I was thinking that but got sidetracked in my anger..

YOu figure that if the big companies paid back the taxes they legitimately owe, we wouldn't have a deficit and we would probably be able to improve the lives of many Americans and people in 3rd countries....


bad Amazon link, not sure I want to read that and get more depressed, but then that would be apathy.........

[cosmicdot]

16. BuzzFlash interview w/David Cay Johnston

http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/03/int04016.html

[Deja Q]

17. I remember when 40-to-1 seemed insufficient...

Back in 1980, go fig.

[mitchum]

19. But they work 431 times harder!

[Pharlo]

20. Indeed, it's HARD WORK trying to screw the common worker.

Just ask George II.

[tsuki]

21. That is why I support a maximum wage on all publicly owned

corporations.

[Demeter]

23. This Has Got To Stop

you can't run a company that way--except into the ground!

You can't run a country that way

And sure as shooting can't run democracy that way.

[Darranar]

24. And people are dying in New Orleans because they lacked the means...

to get out.

What kind of country do we live in, to have this be acceptable?