Nathaniel Popper writes:Probably the most-heard complaint about big business these days, one seemingly tailored for the 99 percent, is how much money corporate C.E.O.'s routinely pull down. Many ordinary Americans probably cheered when stockholders ' that is, the people who actually own public companies ' finally began to say, 'Enough.'Yeah, well.
Despite a lot of noise from shareholders and a few victories at big names like Citigroup and Hewlett-Packard, executive pay just keeps climbing.
Yes, some corporate boards seem to be listening to shareholders, particularly on contentious issues like the seven-figure cash bonuses that helped define hyperwealth during the boom. Since the bust, corporate America on the whole has moved to tie executive pay more closely to long-term performance by skewing executive paychecks more toward restricted stock, which can't be sold for years.
But rewards at the top are still rich ' and getting richer. Now that 2011 proxy statements have been filed, the extent of executive pay last year has finally become clear. Median pay of the nation's 200 top-paid C.E.O.'s was $14.5 million, according to a study conducted for The New York Times by Equilar, a compensation data firm based in Redwood City, Calif. The median pay raise among those C.E.O.'s was 5 percent. (The full list is available here.)
That 5 percent raise is smaller than last year's. But it comes at a time of stubbornly high unemployment and declining wealth for many ordinary Americans. [...]
High Impact Posts. Top Comments. Overnight News Digest.
No comments:
Post a Comment