CEO pay 'business as usual' (25% increase in 2004!)

[Career Prole]

By Gary Strauss and Barbara Hansen, USA TODAY

Big CEO paydays are back in style. After three years of modest gains, higher corporate earnings and rising stock prices helped many executives post their largest personal financial windfalls since the go-go 1990s.

CEOs pulled in median compensation of about $14 million in 2004, up 25% from 2003, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the largest public companies filing annual proxies through March 25. Compensation includes salary, bonus, incentives, stock awards, stock-option gains and potential returns from fresh option grants. Data were provided by executive-pay-tracker eComp Data Services.

USA TODAY reviewed several hundred fiscal 2004 proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and found that some of the biggest compensation winners oversee small companies. Coach's Lew Frankfort pocketed $84 million exercising options, and received fresh grants worth more than $130 million, while Forest Laboratories' Howard Solomon gained $90.5 million from exercising options. Across a broad cross-section of companies, there was extensive use of income-boosting retention bonuses, supplemental retirement pay and perks ranging from tax reimbursements to personal use of corporate jets. (Related:http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2005-03-30-ceo-pay-2004-side_x.htm">CEO perks include yacht expenses,sports tickets)

"Forget restraint," says Paul Hodgson, analyst for shareholder watchdog group The Corporate Library. "After years of moderate gains, it's business as usual."

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"CEOs pulled in median compensation of about $14 million in 2004, up 25% from 2003...

And elsewhere in Yahoonews today, Americans' incomes, bolstered by strong gains in hiring, rose by 0.3 percent in February

[Trillo]

1. That's some major class disconnect.

An ominous sign of the times we're moving into, when civilization falls apart. The Uber-Rich's minions, the CEO.

[Career Prole]

2. Yup...and they referred to that 0.3% increase as a "sharp rise".

You could have the same "sharp rise" every month all year and come out a measly 3.6% better off. Factor out the 25% increase the CEO's got and where are we?

[Trillo]

3. Major loss.

It's a relative perspective. Many may have trouble realizing it, and some might deny it, since the dollar value going into their accounts each month increased a small fraction.

I have no exact formula for how to calculate the relative loss, nor the desire to try, but in simplistic terms, the CEOs transferred workers money into their pockets, and into the pockets of their Uber-Rich shareholders. The law backs them up through legal concepts of 'ownership.'

It's Robin Hood in reverse, or it's what the Sheriff of Nottingham represented-->'Steal from the poor to pay the rich.'

[Krupskaya]

4. This is good news!

These CEOs will reinvest their extra money into stocks and other company investments, thus creating more jobs!!!!

Why are you all so mean to CEOs? It's hard work being in charge!!!!!!!

[UpInArms]

5. HP Giving Hurd $20 Million 'Golden Hello'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14484-2005Mar30.html?nav=rss_topnews

Mark V. Hurd, who takes over tomorrow as chief executive of troubled computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co., is widely viewed as the antithesis of the celebrity chief executive, a nuts-and-bolts manager with little interest in grabbing headlines for himself.

<snip>

According to the employment agreement, Hurd will receive cash, stock and perks worth at least $20 million for simply walking in the door at HP's Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters.

Paul Hodgson, senior analyst at the Corporate Library, a research organization, called Hurd's deal a prime example of the kind of "golden hello" package now commonly handed out by large public companies.

<snip>

Hurd's package includes a $2 million signing bonus, a $2.75 million cash "relocation allowance," 1.15 million stock options valued by the company at $6.9 million and 400,000 restricted HP shares worth about $8 million.

In addition to the relocation allowance, Hurd will also receive free housing for a year and a four-year "mortgage interest subsidy." There will also be "no limit on the weight of household goods" he chooses to ship to California, according to the agreement.

...more perks in article...

:nopity:

[deacon2]

6. Quite the "hello"

I'd call this a "pre-reach around" in light of what he's going to do next - ax the hell out of the rank and file to create more "shareholder value," then bail out with millions of "fuckyoubucks" just ahead of the final implosion. God damn, Nero would be proud of these bastards and the legacy they're leaving to our nation: the breathless competition of a jobless recovery, the Darwinian struggle to survive until the new McDonald's is finished down the street. It makes my heart flutter, it really does. And don't you just love the exhiliration at the top of this roller coaster... the creaking of the rails... the sudden tug of gravity just before we..................................

[Daphne08]

7. This is a disgrace in a country where

so many are suffering from loss of jobs, insurance, etc.

[kysrsoze]

8. Wouldn't it be great if this huge pay were tied to their performance?

Nothing like seeing these @ssholes told to hit the road walking and given $20 million on their way out?