Executive Compensation
The New York Times (i.d. required) ran an interesting article on executive compensation today. It cites a study by Equilar Inc. regarding executive compensation at the largest 150 public companies based on revenue.
Of the 7 companies with CEO compensation of $40 million or more, 6 are from big Wall Street firms. While I'm a fan of free markets, I'm also cynical and this to me is another reason to be skeptical of what the big Wall Street money houses are doing with your investment dollars - and is another reason to learn to do it yourself whenever possible.
Company CEO compensation
Goldman Sachs $54.2 mil
Occidental Petro $52.1 mil
Merrill Lynch $46.4 mil
Morgan Stanley $41.4 mil
JP Morgan Chase $41.2 mil
Lehman Brothers $40.7 mil
Bear Sterns $40.0 mil
By the way, here are the CEOs on the list recieving less than $1 million.
Company CEO compensation
Apple $1 (Steve Jobs took $1 for comp.)
Berkshire Hathaway $214,250 (Warren Buffett)
Costco $454,629 (James Sinegal
Publix $912,785 (Chales Jenkins)
Microsoft $976,149 (Steve Ballmer)
I'm personally a big fan of Warren Buffett and admire his stance in creating compensation plans at Berkshire that align managment and shareholder incentives - even when it means his compensation is far less than comparable CEOs.
CEO as shareholder advocate: Buffett is in a position where he could take advantage of shareholders, but goes out of his way to bend over backwards to make sure he places shareholder interests before his own.
1 comment:
I'm sorry, but $40 million a year is just insane. I respect executives who take lower salaries because it shows that they're not in it just to see how much personal wealth they can amass.
I admire A-list actors who take lower paychecks to get smaller, worthy films made, and athletes who do the same for the good of the team.
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