U.S. Senate advances corporate exec pay measure

[Lasher]

By Kevin Drawbaugh
Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:12pm ET

WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Corporate executive pay has landed on the U.S. congressional calendar, with the Senate on Tuesday advancing a bill to cap how much money executives may shelter from taxes in deferred compensation plans.

Amid revelations of massive CEO paydays at companies such as Home Depot Inc. and Pfizer Inc., the deferred compensation measure has been added by lawmakers to a package of tax changes attached to a bill to raise the minimum wage.

The Democratic-led Senate voted 87-10 on Tuesday to end more than a week of debate on the wage bill and hold a vote on it in coming days. The bill to raise the minimum wage for the first time in a decade to $7.25 an hour from $5.15 an hour was approved on Jan. 17 by the House of Representatives.

But the House bill addressed the wage issue only and did not include the multiple tax law changes attached by the Senate. Most of the changes are aimed at giving small businesses some relief from having to pay minimum-wage employees more money.

To make up for lost government revenue from these tax breaks, the Senate bill also targets executive pay by capping at $1 million, or a five-year average of taxable compensation, the amount of pay eligible for tax-free deferral.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2007-01-30T211220Z_01_N30314439_RTRIDST_0_CEOPAY-CONGRESS.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna

[Skittles]

1. now work on the outsourcing crap, PLEASE

stop giving tax breaks to these profiteering bastards