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FinalCall.com News
Business & Money
Makin' money? CEO pay bouncing back after crisis
By Stephen Morris
Updated Sep 18, 2009 - 2:47:10 PM
WASHINGTON (IPS/GIN) - Only 12 months after the meltdown of the U.S. financial system and the ensuing taxpayer-sponsored government bailout, the pay of the nation's top Wall Street chief executive officers is beginning to bounce back to pre-crisis levels, according to a new study on executive compensation released Wednesday.
In addition, the pay gap between the typical CEO and the average U.S. worker remains almost as high as ever, with a disparity of 319-to-1.
“America's executive pay bubble remains un-popped,” said Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS/GIN), the lead author of the study. “And these outrageous rewards give executives an incentive to behave outrageously, putting the rest of us at risk.”
The report, titled “America's Bailout Barons” and released by the Institute for Policy Studies, focuses on the compensation received by the 100 top executives at 20 of the top financial institutions propped up by the federal government to help stave off the worst effects of a recession.
Together they have absorbed approximately $283 billion of federal bailout funds as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
The CEOs of these firms have pocketed an average of $13.8 million in personal compensation—37 percent greater than the overall remuneration of CEOs on the S&P 500 Index, who averaged $10.1 million. Overall, in the three years through 2008, pay packages worth a combined $3.2 billion were given to the nation's top 100 financial executives who averaged $32 million each.
The Institute for Policy Studies report estimates that 100 average working U.S. citizens earning $18.08 an hour—$1,589 a year—would have to toil for 1,000 years to equal the multi-billion-dollar earnings of these executives.
The report, released to coincide with Labor Day on Sep. 7, comes amidst news that U.S. unemployment reached 9.4 percent this July and growing public disillusion over the conduct of banks bailed out by the government who have adopted a “business as usual” approach, despite the billions of taxpayer dollars awarded to prop up the ailing industry.
The pay gap ratio of 319-to-1 does represent a decrease in the gap between a CEO and the average U.S. worker since the banking crisis. However, the overall decline in CEO compensation since 2007, when the ratio was 344-to-1, was 4.4 percent—a neligible figure, the Institute for Policy Studies concludes, when the decline in corporate profits of 10.1 percent is taken into account.
Those 20 top CEOs whose companies received aid from TARP collected paychecks that dwarfed those who head up the top federal financial regulatory agencies. Their $13.8 million in earnings are 70 times greater than the $196,700 salary of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, and 85 times greater than the heads of the SEC and FDIC.
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