What is Digg?190 Comments
- omercyme33, on 05/02/2008, -1/+57Making 66 million a year, you think he'd be able to get a less fake-looking tan.
- superdoofus, on 05/02/2008, -3/+38just so you don't have add a click to anything related to abc:
"Being a CEO these days, according to the people at Forbes magazine, is like playing on a kiddie soccer team: everyone gets a prize ... often a very expensive prize.
CEOS
Kevin Sharer, left, chairman and CEO of Amgen Inc., in July 13, 2006, and Countrywide Financial Corp CEO Angelo Mozilo, right, on Oct. 29, 2007.
(left: Elaine Thompson/AP Right: Ric Francis/AP )
"Supposedly, you get paid for performing in corporate America — but you don't," Forbes senior editor Neil Weinberg said. "It's like a fourth grade soccer league where everyone gets a trophy."
Forbes ranked the worst performing CEOs in America by comparing executive pay to stock performance.
The magazine's list of "Worst Performing Bosses" includes James Tobin, CEO of Boston Scientific, who made an average of $8.2 million while his company stock inched up by an average of 1 percent. It also included Kevin Sharer of the Biotech company Amgen, who made an average of $12.3 million a year while his company's stock dropped, on average, 4 percent a year. Another CEO on the list, Michael Perry of Indymac Bancorp, raked in $6.8 million while his company's stock plummeted 23 percent.
But the best paid, worst performing CEO, according to Forbes, is Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide, the nation's largest home lender. He raked in an average of $66 million a year while his company nearly collapsed, the stock falling an average of 9 percent a year. That's not including the hundreds of millions he got cashing in his own company stock.
Overall, CEOs were paid 15 percent less last year, but they still make more than 10 times the amount they did two decades ago. In 1980, the average CEO once made 40 times what the average worker makes. Now it's 433 times, and many CEOs get paid handsomely, even if they fail.
When Gary Forsee, the CEO of Sprint, was fired, he got $40 million, an $84,000-a-month pension for life, and help finding a new job as a university president.
Weinberg said it's all evidence that, in the business world, "the game is rigged" in favor of CEOs. But some say there have been major reforms in recent years and that most CEOs are fairly compensated.
John Castellani, president of the Business Round Table, said that evaluating CEO performance is more complex than Forbes makes it out to be.
"The outliers are just that — outliers. You have to look at the preponderance of CEOs and how they're performing and how their pay matched performance."
But Weinberg says the examples in his article show there need to be serious changes before CEOs are no longer paid for failure. Most notably, he says, shareholders should be able to vote on who sits on corporate boards, something the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed, but corporate leaders fought tooth and nail to defeat.
"It's called shareholder democracy right, and that's what we need in this country," Weinberg said. "We have something more akin to [President Vladimir] Putin in Russia right now than we do to a representative democracy."
Only when there's democracy in corporate America, he says, will the playing field truly be level." - IRoaChI, on 05/02/2008, -4/+39i don't like that my ceo (like most) get a 80% for poor preformance or 100% for good. Yet the staff get 5% ,, who does the work around here again ?
- EEinOK, on 05/02/2008, -2/+32Aren't these the type of guys that George Carlin refers to as "the true owners of this country"?
- theStig, on 05/02/2008, -3/+30What is it about america where incompetence is rewarded? Run a company into the ground? Here's your multimillion dollar screw up package. Color outside the lines in kindergarten? Here's your pat on the head - at least you tried.
In China, they've executed people for less. - pintomp3, on 05/02/2008, -2/+26Since 1980, average CEO pay has skyrocketed 442 percent, adjusting for inflation, from a mere $1,364,524. Average worker pay has inched up just 1.6 percent from an inflation-adjusted $30,244 in 1980.
In 1980, CEOs made 45 times the pay of production and nonsupervisory workers. By 1990, the CEO-worker pay gap had doubled, with CEOs making 96 times as much. Last year, CEOs made 458 times as much as production and nonsupervisory workers. - Ferenike, on 05/02/2008, -0/+19A company that I worked for was consistently losing money each year until they were in debt for millions. One year, we got no Christmas bonuses. Later, I stumbled upon a salary & bonus document and saw that the management all got bonuses equal to their salaries.
- Hangly, on 05/02/2008, -0/+17This is the baby boomer mindset. To paraphrase the eXile's brilliant analysis of boomer thought:
In the 60's the baby boomers were against the establishment because their parents were running it. Now they're in charge, and they think the rest of us should give them a break. After all, they're not bad guys. They're just kids doing their best. And they didn't ask for all this responsibility. Hey, you think it's easy running a company?
http://old.exile.ru/feature/feature67.html - AuriniDMJ, on 05/02/2008, -2/+18Capitalism? This isn't capitalism. Go read Adam Smith's book - he specifically spoke out against oligarchies. This is just a new form of feudalism, and they have us by the short hairs. Depressing.
- theStig, on 05/02/2008, -2/+175%? Most places, the staff gets **0%** when earnings fall short.
- Hangly, on 05/02/2008, -0/+14And yet when someone suggests that the owner class colludes to support its members, people ask them about their tinfoil hat.
- inactive, on 05/02/2008, -5/+19Or when it's going to greedy and immoral people.
- killdashnine, on 05/02/2008, -0/+13Honestly, it's not constrained to CEOs. I used to work for a start-up company which was top-heavy and mostly composed of "executives" making well in excess of $100k+. Of course, the executives did very little but bark orders to a small team of underpaid and thankless employees. The company failed but of course you can't take the salary back.
A real measure of success is to tether the executive salaries in a big way to company performance. Company succeeds, the execs make money ... performs poorly and they don't. Like sales people, if they're not bringing in cash they go without. Simple! - pak314, on 05/02/2008, -0/+12Poor guy. If only they gave him 100 million a year then he could afford a real tan.
- archiesteel, on 05/02/2008, -0/+12What a totally useless comment.
- beloitpiper, on 05/02/2008, -9/+20It is stories like this that make me wonder why Americans hate socialism so much.
There is no justice in capitalism. - beloitpiper, on 05/02/2008, -2/+12Disgusting.
- mithrasinvictus, on 05/02/2008, -2/+12Somehow these people take credit (literally) for the profit, but have other people pick up the tab for the losses.
- InfiniteNothing, on 05/02/2008, -2/+12Sounds like theft
"Critics say that all too often, boards of directors, which set CEO pay, are filled with the CEO's cronies.
"It's a very incestuous business," Weinberg said. "People are on each other's boards, they are hired by the chief executive, they are thankful to be a part of the club." - tuxidomasx, on 05/02/2008, -1/+11that guy looks like an oompa loompa
- inactive, on 05/02/2008, -1/+10hahahaa another fool PROUD to be enslaved!
???? - whatthehell9, on 05/02/2008, -0/+8where do i send my resume?
- InfiniteNothing, on 05/02/2008, -1/+8Makes you wonder what happened to take it from 45 to 400+
- niradg, on 05/02/2008, -3/+9Unless the real shareholders (money managers for pension funds, 401ks) can wrest control of corporate boards, the CEOs will continue to act like a cartel who sit on each others' boards and vote themselves big pay raises. These overpaid managers are robbing our nation's wealth; they're stealing the profits while our investments flounder.
- brufleth, on 05/02/2008, -1/+7The CEO of my company was given a 10% raise and told investors all was well right before we missed our numbers for the first time in years and the stock tanked. He's in hot water with investors.
- Hangly, on 05/02/2008, -0/+6i.e., the Big Club.
- archiesteel, on 05/02/2008, -2/+8It's more simple than that: people at the top, the corporate elite, have gamed the system so that they make even more money (proportionately) than they did a mere 20 years ago.
Those here who claim to support capitalism should be the first ones to rise up against this kind of abuse, because it completely undermines their moral rationalization of it (level playing field, meritocracy, etc.) - archiesteel, on 05/02/2008, -3/+9Gee, way to oversimplify the issue.
- archiesteel, on 05/02/2008, -5/+11I doubt you have lived in a Socialist country, since there hasn't been one around - you know, unless you make the common mistake of amalgamating Stalinism and/or State Capitalism with Socialism.
This kind of "robber baron" attitude, especially in light of economic trouble by the common people, can only lead to increased class tensions, and that's not good for the elite. To survive, an unjust system such as Capitalism needs to have at least the appearance of fairness - these examples of CEOs and their buddies on Boards abusing the system are ultimately self-destructive. As someone who appears to think Capitalism is a good thing, you should be among the first ones to denounce it.
Unless of course you happen to have the delusion that it might one day happen to you, and you want the chance to abuse the system yourself. Apart from the fact that it's *never* going to happen, you also can't claim that this is a morally acceptable position. - inactive, on 05/02/2008, -4/+10And way to assume that "we just want to be rich".
See, some of us recognize crony capitalism and corruption when we see it. It's a shame you "capitalists" don't have the foresight to examine your own ideology in practice. - InfamousAtheist, on 05/02/2008, -2/+8My CEO is a self-enriching *****. I worked for him at a competitor for five years, left for the competition (which he hated), and now he's my CEO again, with incentives to make himself MILLIONS if he sells our company at a huge profit. Millions of shares of stock on top of the millions he made selling the last company we worked for.
I want to bang his trophy wife and film it just to knock him down a peg. She's half his age and flirts with all the guys who are my age at company parties.
Of course, like most other places, we make slave wages compared to what he does. - Porch, on 05/02/2008, -1/+7First off, in anything you can people getting paid well to do bad work.
Second, top *good* CEOs are like top sports athletes. They get paid big bucks because they bring in the big bucks. They are highly skilled in what they do. I have yet to hear anyone say Shack is paid too much. Or that (insert name of movie actor here) was paid too much for their work in a movie. You get what you pay for, with a few exceptions like the ones listed here.
I do know a few CEOs. Not of the F500, but smaller shops. They are all paid well, but work very hard. Some are the first in the office at 5am and leave at 10pm. Most also work weekends too. - brad3378, on 05/02/2008, -0/+6NPR recently interviewed a guy who claimed his company requested a 20% pay cut immediately after the company president got a big raise like this.
Needless to say, the guy quit his job & moved on. - InfiniteNothing, on 05/02/2008, -3/+9These companies are publicly traded. They are owned by the shareholders. When this stuff happens it's like stealing from all the lesser shareholders. Yet the shareholders don't get a vote in who the board of directors are.
- inactive, on 05/02/2008, -1/+7It's looking more and more like old fashioned feudalism every single day.
- pintomp3, on 05/02/2008, -0/+5the american dream has become just that, a dream.
- StingingNettle, on 05/02/2008, -0/+5"Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide" and yet all these same mainstream business news sites and magazines loved him and did interviews with him when housing was going up with "no end in sight".
- inactive, on 05/02/2008, -2/+7SELL YOUR STOCK IDIOT
Christ. It's not that ***** difficult. I don't need to read some ***** whiny article about it. These companies have NO obligation to pay their CEOs a "fair wage" according to YOUR standards. - flip2trip, on 05/02/2008, -1/+6"....while the people doing the actual work get nothing"
I think they get paychecks. Don't like your job, quit get another one--have no skills--get training--need an education to get a better job--go back to school--now wipe the drool off your chin and go to bed and quit bitching about the money other people get. - archiesteel, on 05/02/2008, -1/+6It's not about the pay cut, dummy, it's about how much money you have left compared to your expenses. A guy going from 100 million to 20 million is better off than someone going from 50,000 to 10,000.
You should really think more about what you're going to write before you post, you'd look less of a fool. - lowhauler, on 05/02/2008, -0/+5You can't earn an insane amount of money without paying lots and lots of people as little as you can possibly get away with. It's the flipside of the difference between the top and the bottom salaries. It's called exploitation, and it's the most time-honored way anybody ever makes an insane amount of money. Enjoy your blood money.
- inactive, on 05/02/2008, -0/+4Your an idiot. Though it's true that there are some CEO's that possibly deserve large incomes, there is no justification for them making the type of money some of them are making, all the while their company taking a nose dive. If your company is putting down record losses, there can hardly be a reason for the multi-million dollar bonuses that still float their way. Most CEO's are old fogies who don't even really understand the real workings of how their businesses even run anymore, and yet the have they audacity to sit their and plan budgets and salaries that are way too thin, underpaying the very core of the business just so they could simply line their pockets.
I'm not against a CEO getting paid more than a midlevel employee...but these rediculous CEO salaries and benefits go WAY TOO FAR most of the time, and if they would simply give themselves a reasonable salary, and realocate the rest of the money to give people better pay and more motivation, and grant the business the resources it needs to pull through a slow period, the world could and would be a much better place.
A CEO making Multi-Millions while his company crashes, and all the investors lose their money, people lose their jobs, economy being affected, etc. etc., is just as bad and immoral as the mafia creeping their way into corporations only to rack up debt, squeeze as much out of the business as possible, and then setting it ablaze to collect insurance monies and cover up their illegal ways.
You sir, are one of the many reasons these types of things are allowed to happen on a daily basis in this country.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Some people are alive simply because its illegal to kill them. Getting rid of the likes of your gene pool would do wonders for this nation. - inactive, on 05/02/2008, -5/+9Except when they don't work hard; and they don't deserve the money. And when they ***** up; I'll blame them thanks.
- brufleth, on 05/02/2008, -0/+4...and your point?
- OldJesser, on 05/02/2008, -0/+4Zlorp, it's one thing to make more money because you earned it. It's quite another to make 433 times the amount that the people who are earning that money for you are making. If you can accomplish this while failing at running your company and you don't find it immoral, then it is no wonder you have the viewpoint that you do.
No, not all CEOs are like this, but on average in the US the salary gap is absurd. I happen to know a couple of CEOs in Japan(relatives of a friend) who are very wealthy, but their workers are also making a fair share, or at least not 433 times less while producing all of the revenue. This is what we should see in the US, because the US is supposed to be the land of opportunity, rather than the land of corporate greed.
It's not money envy to wish that we, as workers, are paid a fair share of the company profits when we are the backbone of the revenue generation. - mOdQuArK, on 05/02/2008, -1/+5Silly. Unless you are already one of those executives, what makes you think you have any kind of reasonable chance of earning an income like those? Pretty damn slim chances, if any.
- Swarms, on 05/02/2008, -0/+3Source? The CEO's I have met have put in 30 years of HARD work to get where there are. Yes, they have to know how to play the game, but it's still not a job that just any old idiot can do. Walmart wouldn't function without the cashiers either, but that doesn't mean that the Cashiers are what makes Walmart run. They shouldn't be compensated nearly the same. If anything, the CEO maintains an environment where the cashiers have a place to work. Without someone at the top, someone everyone else strives to be, the economy would stall. That's how progress works.
- lowhauler, on 05/02/2008, -0/+3even simpler: sell your company to the workers. labour with a substantive equity investment is considerably more motivated than labour paid as little as possible. If labour needs management, labour hires management. If management ***** up, labour fires management, hires new management. Has nobody heard of Mondragon?
- inactive, on 05/02/2008, -3/+6"don't put quotes around a statement that clearly shows you mis quoted zlorp."
It was largely the same sentiment so no thanks, Mr Priggish.
"And just what's wrong with capitalism?"
Nothing so long as it is not taken to its extreme. Free for all capitalism is just as bad as communism.
I do not buy into the idea that the free market can provide for all social needs. - cazbot, on 05/02/2008, -0/+3Screw socialism, I'd be happy if we just went back to democracy. I think it would simply be adequate if we just restored a true democracy and toned down the facism currently gripping America. If our elected representatives weren't so beholden to these corporate billionaires who financed their campaigns, maybe we'd have more equitable market regulations in place.
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