CEO gets $210 million severance while federal min wage mired at $5.15hr

[RiverStone]

More proof the elite class rewards CEO's with obscene payouts, while the former do-nothing Congress gave not a damn for the worker struggling with the obscenely low federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. With the 110th Congress thankfully convening tomorrow, a raise to $7.25 per hour will at least acknowledge the disparity; though won't put too much more bread on the table.

Kudo's to Barney Franks for spot-lighting the grotesque severence package of Robert Nardelli.
:applause:

* * *
WSJ
1/3/07

Rep. Frank Hammers Home Depot

It didn’t take long for Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), chairman-designate of the House Financial Services Committee, to express outrage at the CEO shuffle at Home Depot.

“The action of Home Depot’s board of directors to simultaneously dismiss Robert Nardelli and provide him with $210 million in severance is further confirmation of the need to deal with a pattern of CEO pay that appears to be out of control.” Frank said in a statement “Some defenders of CEO pay argue that CEOs are rewarded for increasing the stock or the overall value of the company, but judging by today’s market reaction, Mr. Nardelli’s contribution to raising Home Depot’s stock value consists of quitting and receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to do so.”

Frank, a longtime critic of outsized executive pay packages and a proponent of a higher minimum wage for workers, added: “Business leaders who are frustrated by the unwillingness of the American voter to be supportive of their agenda for economic growth should look to the contrast of Mr. Nardelli’s consolation prize and the resistance of business to raising the minimum wage.” –Mary Lu Carnevale


http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/01/03/rep-frank-hammers-home-depot/

[unpossibles]

1. I agree 100% with your message, although I do have to say that

Home Depot offers above minimum. I applied there while job hunting last year, and it was like $10/hour, although with no employee discount (which for me made it far less attractive as I am in an old fixer upper).

So... while I think the guy made too much, I do have to say for the sake of honesty that HD offers it's employees better than min. wage.

[ThomCat]

2. If they can afford to pay him over 200 million to quit

for doing a shitty job, do you think they were paying you enough?

What could he possibly do, that doing it poorly is worth that kind of money?

[hippiechick]

4. ... probably the same thing our CEO of 9 months did ...

... he was with the company for 9 months - got a $700k signing bonus, and left with a $14MIL golden parachute. For 9 months' work.


:puke:

[unpossibles]

7. oh trust me, I am not defending him

I find the pay of CEOs to be disgusting and criminal. And I ended up not taking the job because I could make the same freelancing but with fewer hours. Once I found out they did not have any employee discounts, it was far less attractive, even as a temporary job.

One more thing, I was also put off by the number of people I met in the orientation who like myself, were looking for work outside of their careers because the economy was so bad (for labor).

I honestly do not understand how not only companies can pay someone for being a failure, but even worse how the "meritocrat" NeoCons and Repukes can defend it. It's ok for someone to make millions doing nothing, but completely unacceptable to them that people are on public assistance. It's pure bullshit.

[Nite Owl]

3. Besides the obvious obcenity of the

payout to him he did a poor job for investors as well:



Home Depot shares rose $1.33, or 3.3 percent, to $41.49 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange, near the upper end of their 52-week range of $32.85 to $43.95. Before Wednesday's news, Home Depot's stock had been down more than 3 percent on a split-adjusted basis since Nardelli took over.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070103/home_depot_nardelli.html?.v=25

Their main competitor certainly has done better:

http://finance.yahoo.com/charts#chart2:symbol=hd;range=5y;compare=low;indicator=dividend+split+ema(50,13,200)+macd+rsi+wpr;charttype=candlestick;crosshair=on;logscale=on;source=undefined

[leftofthedial]

5. screwing workers pays good

[aquart]

6. If this is what they paid him to make him go away....

Sounds like a shakedown. Arrest him.

[devilgrrl]

8. Hey all you undercover Randites! Don't forget to post to defend this!!!

Come on. Tell us all that they EARNED it. Don't be shy now.

[HughBeaumont]

9. Robert Nardelli invented EVERY tool sold at Home Depot.

HD's stock price soared to 400 dollahs a share under his reign.

:silly: