Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Up and Up

The Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank that quotes IF Stone on its home page, has been reviewing CEO compensation for about a dozen years. Their data comes from Business Week and the proxy statements of about 400 large public companies. So, while I'm sure they've read the numbers using their progressive bent, the basis of their reports is essentially sound.

They report that in 2004 the ratio of the compensation of their average CEO to the average worker was 431:1. In 2001 the ratio was 301:1. Do you really think CEOs are worth that much?

At our conversation group this week, a Bear Stearns stockholder reported that the top five executives of the company received dividends of about $115,000,000; the rest of the shareholders received $85,000,000. Sound reasonable to you?

1 comment:

Flimsy Sanity said...

For some reason, people just don't get upset about CEO salaries like they will about some little welfare fraud. I think it is biological, lick the alpha dog and attack those below you. It is not just Bolton, put people in general IMHO kiss up, kick down. Found your site through Sparrow Chat. Like it a lot.