But, Is It Big Enough to Hold All That Cash??
If I had to pick a single image that symbolized the breathtaking (and grotesque) leap in executive compensation at major corporations the last quarter-century or so, I might have gone with the Burj Khalifa (world’s tallest building), or perhaps an especially lavish Fourth of July fireworks display.
But, as metaphors go, the supertanker on the cover of Exxon Mobil’s “2015 Executive Compensation Overview” (photo, left) ain’t bad.
Like a modern supertanker, executive pay at the upper echelons of Corporate America today is a seemingly unstoppable juggernaut, easily smashing through any and all efforts by shareholders and government to contain it.
Redefining Greed (and the Denominator)
According to various news reports as well as 2014 year-end company filings, the average Fortune 500 CEO now takes home more than $15 million.
A year.
Perhaps that’s why The Conference Board, a trade group for Fortune 500 CEO’s, successfully lobbied to redefine the pay ratio from the top relative to the bottom, to the top to the middle.
Result: today’s Fortune 500 CEO’s “only” make 300 times or so what the average employee makes, instead of 1,000 times what the janitor does.
“The CEO-to-Janitor Ratio”
Back when Republican Dwight Eisenhower was President — no one’s idea of a bleeding heart, tax-and spend liberal — “the CEO-to-janitor” ratio was something like 30:1.
Oh! And the marginal tax rate on income over $2 million a year was 90%(!).
See also, “How Much Do CEO’s Make? It’s All in the Definition“; “Former Yale President Richard Levin’s $8.5 Million Smile“;”Parsing Occidental CEO Ray Irani’s “Excellent Performance'”; and “Exactly Who is a ‘Millionaire?‘”
