Post
by bluetick » Mon Dec 10, 2012 3:13 pm
Firms Resist New Pay-Equity Rules - Wall Street Journal by Leslie Kwoh
As the final shareholder votes on executive pay round out this year's proxy season, companies are already fighting on another pay-related front.
At issue is a rule that could force them to disclose the gap between what they pay their CEO and their median pay for employees, a potentially embarrassing figure that many companies would like to keep private.
Total direct compensation for 248 CEOs at public companies rose 2.8% last year, to a median of $10.3 million, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal and Hay Group. A separate AFL-CIO analysis of CEO pay across a broad sample of S&P 500 firms showed the average CEO earned 380 times more than the typical U.S. worker. In 1980, that multiple was 42.
Wide gaps in pay can affect employee morale, productivity and turnover, several studes have found. In the 1980s, management guru Peter Drucker advocated capping the ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay at 20 to 1. Beyond that, resentment creeps in, according to the think tank Drucker Institue. In 2010, a joint study by Northeastern University's business school and Bentley University found that employee productivity decreases as the disparity between CEO and worker pay increases.
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
Let your heart be light
"OMG, this is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I AM FUCKED!"