$500K per yr salary cap should be extended to ALL corporations

[FreakinDJ]

Honestly – I feel the $500K per yr salary cap tax exemption should be extended to ALL corporations. 65% of American Corporations pay ZERO Taxes after all the tax exemptions given them. The purpose of the Corporate Tax Exemptions was to encourage “Re-investment” in America. Not shipping whole Industries to China

So if they prefer to pay a 20% corporate tax for salaries in excess of $500K per years as opposed to reinvesting that money into the corporation – so be it

[begin_within]

1. Or maximum 5-to-1 ratio between highest and lowest paid employees and subcontratcor employees

[Cresent City Kid]

3. You beat me to it

I've had thoughts of a national salary cap, but revised it to a set ratio of highest paid-to-lowest paid employees. I believe the current average is 475 to 1. We could call it "No Worker Left Behind".

[begin_within]

8. Ben & Jerry's used to have a 7-to-1 ratio but abandoned it 2 years ago

[Greyhound]

9. I like the concept, but think 5 to 1 is pretty tight, even Ben & Jerry used 8 to 1. n/t

[begin_within]

11. Frankly I think working for someone who is grabbing from the pile 5 times what you are getting is

still ridiculous and unfair. It's what drove me (and millions of other people) to become self-employed.

[Greyhound]

15. I've always gone that way too, and even 4 to 1 works until you hit about

20 people then the additional layers required by tax & other regulations starts requiring more flexibility, in my experience.
:hi:

[Cid_B]

22. Am I understanding correctly..

that by 5 to 1 you mean if the assistant janitor is making 7 bucks an hour the max that any one else can make is 35?

[DefenseLawyer]

2. I'm not sure how that is workable or enforceable

unless it is imposed of companies with government contracts perhaps. Believe me, if you could create an artificial "cap" like that, they would have 50 ways to beat it in about 15 minutes after it was passed.

[FreakinDJ]

7. Easily enforcable it called the - IRS

Nope every thing has "Cash Value" according to the IRS and any thing you transfer to your employees must be recorded

And TAXED !!

[DefenseLawyer]

17. Good luck with that.

So what keeps a corporation from turning 50 departments into separate corporate entities, with the same CEO for each of them, making your 500k cap from each one? As far as taxes go, while many corporations may no taxes as an entitiy, the CEOs certainly pay taxes on their earnings now.

[FreakinDJ]

19. Tax Evasion

A child understands that 1

[DefenseLawyer]

20. How is it tax evasion?

Assuming that taxes are properly withheld from each of his 50 salaries? You seem to have changed your focus, from arguing that ceos make too much money to ceos not paying enough income taxes. It is corporations that don't pay enough income taxes. I am unaware of anyone that argues that ceos are somehow avoiding being taxed on their extremely high salaries. Good luck with your plan though, it's brilliant.

[FreakinDJ]

21. Enron tried that

Inter-trading corporations

and No I haven't changed the focus

[DefenseLawyer]

24. No, Enron didn't try that.

Enron committed accounting fraud by moving debts and losses off their balances sheet and into limited partnerships which it controlled, thus artificially improving their bottom line in order to inflate their stock price. The Enron scandal had nothing to do with ceo salaries or tax evasion. Executives certainly profited from the fraud but that was through the manipulation of the company's stock, apart from any salary they received. Apples and oranges.

[FreakinDJ]

25. Not much of a lawyer - you made my case for me

Enron committed accounting fraud by moving debts and losses off their balances sheet and into limited partnerships which it controlled,

[DefenseLawyer]

26. What does that have to do with the IRS enforcing some "salary cap"?

Enron was an SEC case it has zero to do with the IRS or taxes or executive salaries. I suppose it is possible I made your argument for you, because frankly I have no idea what your argument is. If you really want to limit salaries, work to fix our "free trade laws" and strengthen the bargaining position of labor. It is only on the backs of an underpaid workforce that boards have that kind of money to throw around to executives.

[MadrasT]

4. While I love the idea,

I'm not sure how you could legislate it or enforce it. And if somehow it were done, wouldn't they just get around it with perks and bonuses?

I think the ratio in Japan is 20 to 1 between highest and lowest paid workers.

CEO is a tough job, with an enormous responsiblity, and good ones deserve a big paycheck. But there is a huge difference between "big" and "obscene", which is what many of them have become.

[FreakinDJ]

12. You just Tax the Corporation

That is the enforcement

Currently the corp paying the excessive compensation is allowed to list the excessive salery in the "Debit" column of their books - and pay no tax on it

Simply "Disallow" all Employee Compensation in Excess of $500,000.00 per yr"

To include "Cash Value" of all stocks and options

[Greyhound]

13. Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco pays himself "only" $350K and seems to do quite well. n/t

[FreakinDJ]

14. I would be happy with $350K per year

I work just as hard for it too

[Monk06]

5. No self respecting crook is going to be attracted by that kind of money. That would be

considered an insult as a Christmas bonus
never mind a salary.

[leftofthedial]

6. I think the maximum compensation should be indexed to the minimum wage

Limit executive compensation (including stock, bonuses, etc.) to a fixed multiple of the minimum wage--say 20X.

[Stinky The Clown]

10. We were just talking about this earlier

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4133085

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

16. My former Congressman Martin Sabo

had a great idea. Let them pay the CEO whatever they want, but nothing above a certain ceiling (indexed to some multiple of average employee pay) is tax deductible as to the corporation in question. That would put a hitch in some git-alongs, to paraphrase the late, great Molly Ivins.

Akio Morita, the man who founded Sony, never made more than $350K per year (at least that's what I remember reading somewhere) even though Sony was a worldwide electronics titan. Morita didn't think it seemly to earn too much money. What a concept: humility.

[OmahaBlueDog]

18. The other thing I want is transparent executive compensation

The salaries of the President, VPs, Secretary, Treasurer, CEO, CFO, COO, Chairman, and/or the position that is referred to as Controller, Comptroller, or similar label applied to the corporate checkwriter, should be subject to full disclosure on the annual report to the shareholders for any publicly traded company.

The annual report should include a standardized format that clearly shows

- base pay
- bonus pay
- perqs and personal uses of company property, such as cars, homes, and jets
- performance penalties (money taken away under certain unfavorable circumstances)
- buyouts and parachute clauses

[Indenturedebtor]

23. Any CEO that wouldn't work for 500k can fuck off. I'm sick of this "how do we encourage them" BS nt

[Munchy]

27. No jurisdiction to do so for companies that aren't getting gov't funds...

The government has no authority to affect compensation levels for an entirely private corporation.


This is STILL America.