This past week John McCain promised economic change saying:"We are going to reform the way Wall Street does business and stop multi-million dollar payouts and golden parachutes to CEOs who break the public trust."An interesting thought considering Carly Fiorina, one of McCain's top advisors, recieived about $21 million in gold when she was fired from Hewlett-Packard in 2005 after the company lost one-third of its market value under her tenure.. not bad for a mere 6 years of work.
Of course $21m is small potatoes compared to numbers in the article in the June 17 issue of HR World that lists the most outrageous of parachutes. Here are just a few:
- $351m to Lee R. Raymond of Exxon Mobil Corp in 2006
- $213m to Henry A. McKinnell of Pfizer in 2006
- $158m to Edward Whitacre of AT&T in 2007
I echo McCain's sentiments to reform the way that CEOs are compensated but I wonder if he is maverick enough to do it.. or if he is just a part of that wealthy CEO crowd who doesn't get it.. perhaps he protesteth too much?
While it's all great to talk about CEO compensation (and BTW, I agree 100%), even as a Liberal, I can't see what government's role should be in what a privately held corporation pays its employees. If they take public funding, that's one thing. But, if they don't, shame on the corporations for being stupid enough and irresponsible enough to pay them that much. But, that's capitalism baby.
ReplyDeletePeace,
Brian