Good news! The pandemic may have put millions out of work and shut down businesses across the country, but at least our country's CEOs haven't been asked to make any sacrifices:
According to the Wall Street Journal, this was all part of the plan:
Median pay for the chief executives of more than 300 of the biggest U.S. public companies reached $13.7 million last year, up from $12.8 million for the same companies a year earlier and on track for a record, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
Pay kept climbing in 2020 as some companies moved performance targets or modified pay structures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and accompanying economic pain.
Translation: It looked like it was going to be tough year, so comp packages were deliberately altered to make sure CEOs would make more money anyway. It's good to be king.
~70% increase (if the chart is in constant dollars) in a decade ... not too shabby.
Don't suppose there is a mutual fund that tracks CEO pay?
If there was, it would be a good short opportunity. Companies who overcompensate their CEOs are usually up to something.
The CEOs of big companies have mostly "captured" their boards and stuffed them with allies, so no surprise that when it looked like they were going to take a compensation hit, they got those same boards to "relax" performance standards and shift goals back.
If you'll be on my board, I'll be on yours...
But as with being on the same board as Tiger Mom, it may come with restraints.
That really is what it often is like. Or they stuff them with somewhat famous people for prestige, but who have no idea what's going on in the company and don't care as long as they get paid.
But ... but, something something jaaab creeatorrrzzzz something something free marketplace competition something best and the brightest something!
The real outrage here is the PC censoring of private business decisions like Dr Seuss and Mr Potato Head!
Oh, wait ...
concern trolls were out in force on the Sunday talk shows.
Liz Cheney imitating her father, no not the "deficits don't matter" dad, but the all democrats are misguided one. Basically, Republican would like to work on infrastructure, but the bill does other stuff. There's too much money, it will create inflation (forgetting it's actually paid for). Raising taxes will kill jobs! (except the Trump tax cuts didn't actually work to create jobs, and the bill will create jobs). The bill will kill jobs (fossil fuel industry will be losing jobs anyway, this will create new energy jobs).
No news here. Hell, you could simultaneously have all the biblical plagues, plus a Cat. 5 hurricane, plus every bacterial and viral disease known to man, plus a major meteorite striking the earth, plus the 5 largest volcanoes on each continent erupting -- and CEOs would still figure out ways to make lots of money for shareholders and themselves.
I also just saw Voyagers.
Have to admit, Lily-Rose Depp can act -- she's not JUST a Hollywood legacy -- but her work was better in Yoga Hosers.
there's an asteroid that's supposed to pass within a few thousand miles of earth tonite, i believe. cross your fingers ...
shareholders are of secondary importance, far down on the list. except of course those big enough to have some influence on the board. more important: their own pockets.
The richest CEO took a pay cut instead of his employees... but his company didn't have any shrinkage so he still counted more compensation.
If only CEOs of companies not so lucky would do the same. Maybe they would have weathered the storm better.
(Err, Maybe the companies would have, the CEOs clearly did fine...)
Actual pay is only a very small percent of their compensation. Stock packages--you betcha.
Last year many took their compensation in pay rather than options or performance...
Musk's compensation options requires the company to meet profit and production goals.
How about this:
Every consumer product has a standardized label on the front of the package (if it has a UPC label, it has one of these, too, but on the front rather than the back or bottom). The label lists the producer corporation's CEO's total compensation at the time of production, as well as the percentage increase in said compensation over the previous five year period.
Privately held corporations are not exempt.
Would have just the opposite of the intended effect on MAGA customers.
And that is a negative effect how? Fools and their money......
And the ratio of the least paid employee or contractor to their exec pay.
Would that discourage Gen Xers from buying iphones? I doubt it. The ratio between sweatshop assembly workers in Asia and Tim Cook is probably tops in the world.
Is it? Oh, probably not. Activision/Blizzard's CEO was paid at least 2x more, up to 5x more for a company worth less than a third.
Not sure how much sweatshop manufacturing they do, however. Video games mostly require (relatively) high-paid programmers (though of course the SV employers conspire to keep those wages down); it's manufacturing that can be offshored to Chinese and Vietnamese peasants making pennies per day.
That said, I doubt the millennials buying video games will care about the CEO's pay.
We demanded hundreds of billions in "economic stimulus." Well, the economy was stimulated.
0.1% of it anyway
Yeah? Well where did you think the money would end up?
China.
Thank goodness
I thought the economy was in trouble
Is that "trickle down" working? Or did the CEO just urinate all over his workers?
I can't find that Robin Williams clip. I think it was from one of the Comic Relief shows. Just have to stick with the duck billed platypus clip.
And here it is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc2JBtrPpIk
Chart reports compensation, text discusses pay. Perhaps my understanding of pay as synonym for salary/wage is flawed but I would have thought the WSJ would have been more careful in its wording.