I swear that some CEOs spend more time and energy on ways to increase their compensation than on ways to improve their company's performance. "Pay for performance" is all the rage these days; it's really a sop to deflect criticism of the exorbitant amount paid to most CEOs of large public companies.
Consider that much of this 'performance pay' is keyed to the performance of the company's stock. A certain number of shares, sometimes called phantom shares, are put aside for the CEO to receive when he meets targets. The term 'phantom' really applies here in that you can't see the shares but, at many companies, the CEO is paid dividends on these shares, which he has yet to earn.
The amount paid, while chickenfeed to the CEOs, is real money that comes from the stockholders. Bank of America paid its CEO $2.89 million last year on stock reserved for his meeting future targets. Altria paid more than $2 million to its CEO although he can't possibly earn these shares until 2011. And the list - and the screwing of the stockholder - goes on.
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