Speaking of corporate oversight, executive pay packages have dramatically increased in recent years, even though the company earnings often went down, The New York Times reported. What’s more, the compensation sometimes exceeded the caps set by the directors.
Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil shareholders, fed up with how the company’s directors gave outgoing CEO Lee Raymond (see photo) a final-year pay package of $69.4 million and a retirement lump sum of $98.4 million, voted Wednesday to change the rules for how directors are elected, The Washington Post reported.
And an op-ed piece in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal noted how none of Home Depot’s directors attended its recent annual meeting. “CEO Robert Nardelli, one of the most overpaid CEOs in the U.S., presided over an annual meeting at which no dissent was tolerated and not a single director was present,” Judith Dobrzynski wrote. “This affront to the company’s owners is unprecedented.”
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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18 Comments
I am recently a former Employee of HD and in five years I only got 63 cents in raises. After the 04 fiscal year Nardelli was given a 300% increase in pay.
I think hes robbing the company and taking all that he can get right now. Because down the road they are going to lose a large percent of their business as Lowes continues to grow.
It is a very unorganized operation at their stores. Many of the GMs and ASMs are incompetent and are not fully informed on new processes and sales initiatives. Terrible Place to work.
See yaGary
A big part of the problem is that officers/directors “serve” on each others’ boards. Thus they can end up voting on each others’ compensation and then go out for a day at the company-paid country club.
It is truey awful how much those evil Sports players get paid!
Can you believe that there are basketball players making millions of dollars a year while there are people working in the concession stands still making around minimum wage!
I wonder how many raises the guys selling soda’s at those games get?
Why are we just picking on CEO’s pay?
Nathan,Sports players are directly supported by the money machine that are the sports corporations. They include the people who go to games, the concession stands, TV rights, sales of copyrighted things, etc.
You are on the wrong page on this one. If people didn’t support sports, there wouldn’t be any “overpaid athletes.”
CEO’s, on the other hand, are paid for their so called expertise and nothing more. It is an unholy brotherhood with a select few ripping of the average American.
I agree with Ben in there should be no country clubs for white collar criminals. They should be sent to the worst prisons out there. Let em meet Bubba.
What makes what CEO’s get paid any different?
It is a competitive market place.
Many CEO’s are known for their ability to come into a company and make it start turning more profit.
If a CEO can bring a company to a billion dollar increase in profits is his 100 million salary not worth it?
Just as you say sports are set up the way they are so are thing in the business world too JM.
Besides you saying it is wrong to make that much money, why is it wrong?
If you want to compare the money employees make then I will compare the money the concession stand workers make at sports events.
If you want to compare the perks that CEO’s get then I will compare the perks that sports players get compared to the poor average working joe in the concession stands.
The CEO of exxon leads one of the largest oil companies in the world second only to the state run companies in many other countries.
Here is a company responsible for much of the oil our country consumes and running the company which does it.
You are saying that he is overpaid at 100 million plus yet Shaq who throws around a stupid ball to entertain people is not?
The free market is a construct of the people who control the market.
Our market is far from free. For example, if we subsidize passenger rail, the conservatives scream “socialism!” but we subsidize highways and gasoline (with our military as in Iraq) and nobody complains about that.
The copper companies are worried that Allende might seize the mining rights for GASP! the people of Chile that own them, and the next thing you know, Allende is out in a CIA backed coup.
That’s the so-called “free market.” It’s a ridiculous myth that only a child’s mentality could believe.
But, True Blue, the things you cite are examples of the government intervening to make markets less free, aren’t they?
To the extent that they are, and I will take your word for it, that means the markets are not free.
Nathan,A sports figure doesn’t take home 10% of any increase in profits, as the CEO does in your example.
Sports is an entirely different breed of cash cow. It is based on entertainment and not something critical to the running of this country. Sports produces nothing tangible other than temperary distraction from everyday life.
CEO’s on the other hand are hired for their ability to turn a company around and turn a profit, as you stated. They are usually based on productive environments. Something tangible is produced: medicines, automobiles, food, housing, etc. Most are essential for human life. That, in my opinion, makes them more accountable to their stockholders, and to the everyday person. They do not, in my opinion, deserve mega-million dollar salaries, nor do they deserve mega-milion dollar deals when the company they control is failing. If their salary were based on performance, there would be many broke CEOs in the states.
JM Walker,
We are not talking about performance. We are talking about CEO pay.
If you want to talk about performance, especially the way you do, then I can talk about a hundred different jobs which if they were based on mere performance people would be throwing a fit.
CEO pay is based on many things. One of them is performance. Yeah, sometimes I agree with you that the way some companies perform their CEO’s should take a hit too.
That is an entirely different debate though.
The decision that caused me to mutually agree to sever my employment with Raytheon Aircraft came from that corporations CEO.
The man had been in charge of the company for more than 3 years and…..HAD NEVER BEEN THERE! To this day he has still never been there. But under his wonderful leadership, that place has turned into an employer trying desperately and in every way to fire its workers while simutaneously doing everything they can to encourage them to quit!
Wanna compare CEOS and athletes Nathan? I can do that. I don’t like obscene atlete salaries either. Before going on I note that you are in the military and may get a whole new attitude if you start working in the private sector.
But one comparison I might mention is signing bonuses. Atletes get’em. This is because they have DEMONSTRATED talent. CEOs get signing bonuses too! But they get them based on what they MIGHT do for…..or TO a company. To me it is patently rediculous to pay someone up front to run a company. They’ve already cashed in! Where is the incentive to do well if you are already filthy rich and will get a golden parachute when you do leave/get fired? There isn’t any. This is a serious flaw in how this countries business operates today and much of the reason why America will likely be a 3rd world nation inside of 20 years.
It is beyound belief that Enron is willing to pay their CEO over 400 million as a retirement bonus – while their own employees retirement plan is under funded. It should be treason for any CEO or director to not honor and employee pension promise. All assets of all corporate officers and their families should be siezed to cover any corporation’s pension obligation.
Uncle Sam
KCL is hanging on to his beloved delusions with everything he’s got.
“The only thing that makes the free market unfree is government.”
A simple statement for a simpleton.
If we didn’t have zoning laws, KCL, then I could put a scrap yard right next to your house. That would be the free market, so you wouldn’t mind, right.
If I ran a dry cleaners, it would be a lot cheaper to just run the spent solvent into the rain gutter in the street. Under your plan, government would have nothing to say about it. Let’s say your daughter lived in an apartment nearby and got cancer and died a painful early preventable death.
You wouldn’t mind because you love the free market, right?
In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, “what a maroon . . . “
Also, you really should cut the crap with the “liberal” in your nomiker. The 19th century European meaning might be found in a dictionary, but so is the original definition of “gay” for “prostitute.”
Equivocating the meanings of words doesn’t make you seem smarter–it just makes you seem ashamed of the ditto-head you are.
Face it KCL, you can’t compete with me. Blogs are the true free market of ideas and you’re not even second rate. How about you change your name to KansasClassicSimpleton or KansasClassicIdiot. That way even Nathan could recognize you for who you are.
Don’t bother getting back to me after your buzz wears off. Getting a rush with Rush isn’t going to help you here in the free market.
People like you shouldn’t be allowed to participate in intellectual discussions. You are a disgrace.
Ouch.
I would have thought an intellectual would forego ad hominem attacks, name-calling, and attributing things to me that I didn’t say.
Dammit, somebody Trolled me.
Asshole.
That last post above was not by me.
The Eagle should really require log-ins, and put an end to this crap. I know who it is, and this is just at his level, utterly puerile.
But, you know, now that I re-read it, you can tell I didn’t write it.
It has none of my snarky savoir-faire I cultivate so assiduously.
By the way, KCL, instead of responding to the post I didn’t write, try responding to the first two I did.
I’m not sure, LeftHook, but are you apologizing for the insults delivered in the posts that you aren’t refuting?
If so, then I would continue this discussion.
Amen, Gary, formally of The Home Depot. I am a ten year employee of the same company and have watched the morale of employess decline and the management competency levels drop. Raises are negligible and erratic, and the turnover and loss of “old hands” has soared. Not once have I seen an exit interview to see what could be done to save an invaluable employee that has announced they are leaving. Worse, all of this is happening to a background chorus of loud crowing about the supposed high levels of customer service, the stock price sliding sideways and down 10% in five years and an arrogant and “us and them” management structure and CEO who is stealing the golden egg from the goose!