While most Americans are struggling to make ends meet, a certain elite segment of working individuals seem to enjoy yearly incomes that most of us do not enjoy in an entire lifetime of hard work. Just a few short months ago, the American public learned that there were massive failures in the staunch, long established institutions, such as the banks, mortgage lenders and automobile manufacturers.
We were told that our government became suddenly aware of these facts and that our Congress and Senate had to move quickly to avoid the catastrophic failure of these behemoth corporations. We were told that these disastrous events had just fallen out of nowhere, but that we’d better be quick on our feet to rescue these failing institutions. With weekly, monthly and quarterly results reported on Wall Street, you’re forced to wonder how such massive incompetence could have failed to be noticed much sooner.
After the Enron scandal, you might have thought that this couldn’t happen again. Surely the SEC, Congress and the Senate should have taken steps to see that these corporate practices had more oversight and accountability. You might also have thought that an examination of their balance sheets would require immediate attention, including a good look at CEO salary surveys conducted for each of these potential bailout candidates, such as was conducted recently by the Associated Press. Wrong.
When the AP did its own research, the results of their CEO salary survey revealed some truly outrageous data. Here’s just a peek at what they discovered.
Among CEOs of Standard and Poor’s 500 companies, the average CEO was paid $10.5 million, not including stock options, chauffeured rides and other such lovely perks. Based only on the CEO’s salary, how does this compare to the average American worker’s paycheck? The lucky, but only average, CEO takes home about 350 times your paycheck every year! If you’re working a minimum wage job, that same average CEO enjoys a take home approximating 900 times your income! Can you say absurd?
It gets better. Another executive and CEO salary survey examined the compensation received by top equity fund managers in the private sector. Their average, yearly pay approached the $600 million dollar mark. If you have trouble wrapping your brain around this number, this is about 20,000 times that of your average American worker. One startling statistic comes in the form of CEO John Paulson, of Paulson & Co., whose annual compensation was $3.7 billion!
When you consider that an individual who earns a mere $1 million per year could easily, with sound investments and a 5-year plan, retire with enough money to sustain the next few generations of his family, it’s easy to see that the CEO salary survey demonstrates that not one of these outrageously compensated CEOs can possibly be worth what they’re paid. The President of the United States certainly does not make this kind of money and bears far more responsibility.
Another fact which must be included in the discussion is that the companies who are being ‘rescued’ are headed by CEOs who obviously failed in their responsibilities. Had they succeeded, they would not be in need of rescuing.
The bottom line conclusion in the CEO salary survey results is that the taxpayers, for a couple of generations to come, will be paying for these individuals greed and incompetence. Too bad for us!
