Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The Only CEO Pay Number that Really Matters
from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:
The Only CEO Pay Number that Really Matters
April 20, 2013
How much did America’s top execs make last year? The scorekeepers don’t all agree. But that won’t matter if we keep our eyes on the most important figure of all: the pay gap between CEOs and workers.
By Sam Pizzigati
The new numbers on executive pay have been coming fast and furious the last few weeks. So how are America’s top execs faring these days? Last Wednesday, two business correspondents gave two totally different answers.
CEOs, journalist Darcy Keith reported, are once again “scoring big pay increases.” The data, countered analyst Rick Newman, show that shareholder activists now have “more power to rein in bloated executive pay packages.”
Why all this uncertainty about how well top execs are doing? In theory, none of this confusion should exist. By law, after all, U.S. corporations must publicly disclose exactly what they’re paying their top execs.
But exactly how corporations pay their top execs can get tricky. Straight salary — the stuff of standard paychecks — only makes up about 10 percent of typical big-time corporate executive compensation. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/the-only-ceo-pay-number-that-really-matters/
