Putting Pressure On Executive Compensation Practices

It’s hard to imagine that while a good portion of Americans are struggling just to make ends meet, a Chief Executive Officer of a company could possibly make an extravagant salary with bonuses. And this occurs in a near depression economy? Doesn’t this eat at the fabric of society?

What has many of Americans fuming, is that some CEO’s of failing banks are still getting big bonus packages. In other words, your tax payer donations contributed to these CEO bonuses, even if the company claims it was losing money.

TOP PAID 10 CEO’S OF 2008
1.  Sanjay Jha, Co-CEO of Motorola
Total Compensation: $104.5 million
2.  Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle
Total: $84.6 million
3.  Robert Iger, CEO of Walt Disney Co.
Total: $51.1 million
4.  Kenneth Chenault, CEO of American Express
Total: $42.8 million
5.  Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citigroup
Total: $38.2 million
6.  Mark Hurd, CEO of Hewlett-Packard
Total: $34 million
7.  Jack Fusco, CEO of Calpine
Total: $32.7 million
8.  Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp.
Total: $30.1 million
9.  David Cote, CEO of Honeywell International
Total: $28.7 million
10.  A.G. Lafley, CEO of Procter & Gamble
Total: $25.6 million
Source: CNN Money

OBAMA ADMIN TO RESTRICT PAY FOR TOP EXECS
Source:  NYTimes.com

Kenneth R. Feinberg will be appointed to oversee the compensation of the top seven companies who received federal bailout money. Which include: American International Group (AIG), Citigroup, Bank Of America, General Motors, Chrysler, and the financing arms of the two automakers.

There is no salary cap on these seven companies. Approval is automatic if executive pay is no more than $500,000 dollars.

CAP ON CEO PAY
While this allows these companies to mostly get off the hook, this is a step in the right direction, and does have a humiliating effect on uncontrolled management.

Are you tired of exorbitant executive salaries? Should there be a cap on CEO pay?