CEO's in Defense and Oil Industries Are Bleeding Us

[Jcrowley]

No surprise here but still staggering to see the details.

Oil and Defense CEOs Pocket the Spoils

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT HERE: Executive Excess 2006 (PDF, 1 Mb)

CEOs in the defense and oil industries have been able to translate war and rising oil prices into personal jackpots, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, Executive Excess 2006.

OIL BARONS: With Americans now paying over $3 per gallon, petroleum profiteers are raking in nearly three times the pay of CEOs in comparably sized businesses. In 2005, the top 15 U.S. oil CEOs got a 50% raise since 2004. They now average $32.7 million, compared with $11.6 million for all CEOs of large U.S. firms.

Executive pay at U.S.-based oil companies also far outpaced pay at oil companies based outside the United States. BP and Royal Dutch Shell paid their CEOs only one-eighth what their U.S. counterparts collected — just $5.6 and $4.1 million in 2005, respectively — even though both companies operate in the same global marketplace as their U.S.-based competitors.

CEO William Greehey of Valero Energy took home the oil industry’s biggest executive pay rewards in 2005, pocketing $95.2 million. The average construction worker at an energy company would have to work 4,279 years to equal what Greehey collected last year.

DEFENSE CONTRACTORS: Since the “War on Terror” began, CEOs at the top 34 military contractors have enjoyed average paychecks that are double the compensation they received in the four years leading up to 9/11.

http://www.faireconomy.org/EE06

[Red Right and BLUE]

1. There should be a legal ratio.

How about 30:1? 50:1? That way, since these greedy bastidges will always want to make more money, at least the regular guy's pay can go up, too.

431:1 is really just sickening.

[moose65]

2. I agree!

The numbers are just astounding. How can one person's work be worth 95 million dollars a year? I can't even wrap my head around a number that big! How much money does one person need, anyway? I'd think I was rich if I made $200,000 a year! I think 20:1 would be a better ratio. Maybe then ALL salaries would rise, instead of just a handful at the top of the food chain.

[leftyladyfrommo]

3. These have been a really bad 6 years for everybody in this

country. I don't think we will really know how bad it has been until after this adm. is gone - but I think the corruption will be staggering.

[madokie]

8. You know it. this is a corrupt bunch of bastids

[acmejack]

4. $45,673.07 an hour

Good work if you can get it. (95 Million a year)

[focusfan]

5. How can they live on that

I spent sixty dollars at the grocery store this week all I had left after buying gas

[Jcrowley]

6. While our incomes are dropping

HAPPY LABOR DAY!....Courtesy of the Detroit Free Press, here's a handy map showing how far median incomes have dropped over the past six years. And it's good news for most of you: Compared to Michigan and North Carolina you're not doing so badly after all. So stop your sniveling.



http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_09/009444.php

[malaise]

7. Just received this as well.

http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/

The section on Poverty in Chapter 8 is frightening.

[Jcrowley]

9. Mind boggling

Employers shift health insurance costs onto workers
Not only are fewer employees receiving health insurance through their employers, but those who still receive employer-provided coverage are now paying a larger share of those insurance costs. Get the facts at a glance in the Snapshot for August 16, 2006.

Work, poverty, and single-mother families
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the welfare reform legislation signed in August 1996. Those touting the program's success often cite the sharp decline in the poverty rates of single-mother families over the course of the latter 1990s. But what economic factors are really at the heart of these improvements, and have they carried over into today's economy? Get the facts in the Snapshot for August 9, 2006.

U.S. government does relatively little to lessen child poverty rates
U.S. policies have been relatively ineffective in reducing child poverty, with the highest child poverty rate of 16 other industrialized nations. Read more in the Snapshot for July 19, 2006.

Weaker job market re-opens racial income gap
The post-2000 labor market has reversed significant progress in the income gap between African-American and white workers, and in the current labor market the gap is likely to widen further. This week's Snapshot previews data to be presented as part of the forthcoming The State of Working America, 2006/07. Read more in the Snapshot for July 5, 2006.

CEO pay-to-minimum wage ratio soars
Today's average CEO earns more before lunch in one day than the average minimum wage worker earns all year, with a compensation ratio of 821:1. CEO pay continues to climb, while the federal minimum wage has remained unchanged since 1997. Read more in the Snapshot for June 27, 2006.

http://www.stateofworkingamerica.org/previews.html

[malaise]

10. Frightening

I'll be studying this in detail tonight.