CEO Pay Near Record
It's great to be a CEO these days.
According to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, a typical chief executive at a U.S. company earned 262 times the pay of a typical worker in 2005. With 260 workdays in a year, that means that an average CEO earned more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks.
A study released earlier this year by the Corporate Library -- and titled "Pay for Failure" -- singled out some of the corner suite's worst offenders. Among them: Pfizer (PFE) CEO Henry McKinnell; Merck (MRK) former CEO Raymond Gilmartin; and AT&T's (T) Edward Whitacre.
The pay gap is the second-highest in the 40 years for which data are available (American CEOs fared even better in 2000 when they made an average of 300 times the salary of their workers.) It should be noted that EPI defines CEO pay as the sum of salary, bonus, value of restricted stock at grant, and other long-term incentive award payments. Worker pay is calculated as the hourly wage of production and nonsupervisory workers, assuming the economy-wide ratio of compensation to wages and a full-time, year-round job.
The Washington Post reported on July 10 in its annual ranking of local executive pay that "the median total compensation for the 100 highest-paid executives at local public companies rose 21.2 percent in 2005, to $6.4 million from $5.2 million the year before. Futher, many executives' paychecks swelled, no matter how they did . The list was topped by four chief executives who received more than $30 million each: SLM Corp.'s Thomas J. Fitzpatrick ($39.6 million); Capital One Financial Corp.'s Richard D. Fairbank ($31.6 million); United Therapeutics Corp.'s Martine A. Rothblatt ($31.1 million); and Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Gary D. Forsee ($30 million).
"Altogether, the more than 700 executives at 157 firms in The Post's study took home $467.5 million in salary and bonus. Their total compensation -- including options, perks and other items -- had a combined value of almost $1.4 billion, more than the budget of the D.C. public schools.
The average worker in the Washington area was making $50,000 in wages or salary as of May 2005, according to the most recent local snapshot from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For private-sector workers nationwide, total compensation rose an average of 2.9 percent last year."
According to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank, a typical chief executive at a U.S. company earned 262 times the pay of a typical worker in 2005. With 260 workdays in a year, that means that an average CEO earned more in one workday than an average worker earned in 52 weeks.
A study released earlier this year by the Corporate Library -- and titled "Pay for Failure" -- singled out some of the corner suite's worst offenders. Among them: Pfizer (PFE) CEO Henry McKinnell; Merck (MRK) former CEO Raymond Gilmartin; and AT&T's (T) Edward Whitacre.
The pay gap is the second-highest in the 40 years for which data are available (American CEOs fared even better in 2000 when they made an average of 300 times the salary of their workers.) It should be noted that EPI defines CEO pay as the sum of salary, bonus, value of restricted stock at grant, and other long-term incentive award payments. Worker pay is calculated as the hourly wage of production and nonsupervisory workers, assuming the economy-wide ratio of compensation to wages and a full-time, year-round job.
The Washington Post reported on July 10 in its annual ranking of local executive pay that "the median total compensation for the 100 highest-paid executives at local public companies rose 21.2 percent in 2005, to $6.4 million from $5.2 million the year before. Futher, many executives' paychecks swelled, no matter how they did . The list was topped by four chief executives who received more than $30 million each: SLM Corp.'s Thomas J. Fitzpatrick ($39.6 million); Capital One Financial Corp.'s Richard D. Fairbank ($31.6 million); United Therapeutics Corp.'s Martine A. Rothblatt ($31.1 million); and Sprint Nextel Corp.'s Gary D. Forsee ($30 million).
"Altogether, the more than 700 executives at 157 firms in The Post's study took home $467.5 million in salary and bonus. Their total compensation -- including options, perks and other items -- had a combined value of almost $1.4 billion, more than the budget of the D.C. public schools.
The average worker in the Washington area was making $50,000 in wages or salary as of May 2005, according to the most recent local snapshot from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For private-sector workers nationwide, total compensation rose an average of 2.9 percent last year."
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