Executives of the top 50 job-cutting firms in the US earned 42 percent more than their peers in 2009, according to a report published by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). As the country's economy continues to struggle, and American workers earn less in weekly wages than they did in the 1970s (adjusted for inflation), executive salaries have remained substantially, disproportionately high. According to the IPS study, "Executive Excess 2010: CEO Pay and the Great Recession," after adjusting for inflation, the average CEO pay in 2009 is more than four times its average from the 1980s and approximately eight times what it was throughout the mid-20th century.
"Our findings illustrate the great unfairness of the Great Recession," said Sarah Anderson, lead author of the IPS study.
Almost three-fourths of the 50 firms surveyed in the study reported positive earnings after a period of mass firings - at least 3,000 workers per company between November 2008 and April 2010. Meanwhile, the layoff leaders received an average of $12 million in 2009, compared to the Standard & Poor's 500 average of $8.5 million. In some cases, CEO pay during layoff years surged well beyond that range.
Among the culpable layoff giants are Fred Hassan of Shering-Plough, who made $50 million after merging with Merck and firing 16,000 employees; William Weldon of Johnson & Johnson, who laid off 9,000 and received $25.6 million; Mark Hurd of HP, whose severance package of almost $50 million followed his cutting of 6,400 jobs and resignation amid sexual harassment claims; and Kenneth Chenault of American Express, who fired 4,000 and made $16.8 million - after receiving $3.4 billion in federal bailout funds.
To add a hypothetical insult to injury, the $598 million in combined layoff-leader compensation could provide average unemployment benefits to 37,759 workers for an entire year, or nearly a month of benefits to the 531,363 individual workers fired by their companies...
Continue reading
Nadia Prupis @'truth-out'
No comments:
Post a Comment