Comments on: Senior pay: let the workers decide http://waleshome.org/2009/11/senior-pay-let-the-workers-decide/ Independent analysis from and about Wales Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:00:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: william czander http://waleshome.org/2009/11/senior-pay-let-the-workers-decide/comment-page-1/#comment-2259 william czander Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:37:35 +0000 http://waleshome.org/?p=4704#comment-2259 The enormous gap in compensation between the average worker and CEO appears to be uniquely American phenomena. For example in Japan in 2006, a typical executive makes eleven times what a typical worker brings home. For example Hiroshi Okuda, the CEO of Toyota, earned $903,000 in 2006 and Mitsubishi’s CEO Shigemitsu Miki earned $360,000, while Rick Wagoner, CEO General Motors, earned $10.19 million in 2006. In 2005, the CEO of British Petroleum made a handsome $5.6 million, and the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell made $4.1 million. In America the CEO of Exxon Mobil made $69.7 million and the average salary of American oil companies was $33 million. In a study completed by Towers Perrin surveying CEO compensation from 2004-96, found that Japan’s top 100 companies earned an average of around $1.5 million, while American CEO’s earned $13.3 million for American CEOs and European CEO’s earned $6.6 million. In addition when European and Asian companies face losses Their CEO’s voluntarily take a significant cut in pay. For example, Japan Air Line lost $1 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2009 and their CEO gave himself a salary of $90,000 a year (less then a pilot) and took the bus to work. It is guaranteed that you will never find an American CEO engaging in similar behavior even in the face of bankruptcy. Jiang Jianqing the CEO of the worlds largest bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China made $234,700 in 2008 His compensation is less than 2 percent of the $19.6 million awarded to Jamie Dimon, CEO of the world's fourth-largest bank, JP Morgan Chase. In Germany the ratio between the CEO and lowest paid worker is 12 times; France 15 times; Britain, 22 times. In America it rises to between 400 and 500 times. Japan prides itself at having the smallest disparity in salary between executives and their employees. However, there is some evidence that CEO’s of foreign corporations are beginning to emulate their U.S. counterparts and are slowly catching up. For example, research collated by the Centre for Corporate Governance at the University of Technology (2008), in Australia found that in 1992 a typical executive in Australia's top 50 companies earned 27 times the wage of an average worker. By 2002, this had risen to 98 times the wage of an average worker. The enormous gap in compensation between the average worker and CEO appears to be uniquely American phenomena. For example in Japan in 2006, a typical executive makes eleven times what a typical worker brings home. For example Hiroshi Okuda, the CEO of Toyota, earned $903,000 in 2006 and Mitsubishi’s CEO Shigemitsu Miki earned $360,000, while Rick Wagoner, CEO General Motors, earned $10.19 million in 2006. In 2005, the CEO of British Petroleum made a handsome $5.6 million, and the CEO of Royal Dutch Shell made $4.1 million. In America the CEO of Exxon Mobil made $69.7 million and the average salary of American oil companies was $33 million. In a study completed by Towers Perrin surveying CEO compensation from 2004-96, found that Japan’s top 100 companies earned an average of around $1.5 million, while American CEO’s earned $13.3 million for American CEOs and European CEO’s earned $6.6 million. In addition when European and Asian companies face losses Their CEO’s voluntarily take a significant cut in pay. For example, Japan Air Line lost $1 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2009 and their CEO gave himself a salary of $90,000 a year (less then a pilot) and took the bus to work. It is guaranteed that you will never find an American CEO engaging in similar behavior even in the face of bankruptcy. Jiang Jianqing the CEO of the worlds largest bank Industrial and Commercial Bank of China made $234,700 in 2008 His compensation is less than 2 percent of the $19.6 million awarded to Jamie Dimon, CEO of the world’s fourth-largest bank, JP Morgan Chase.
In Germany the ratio between the CEO and lowest paid worker is 12 times; France 15 times; Britain, 22 times. In America it rises to between 400 and 500 times. Japan prides itself at having the smallest disparity in salary between executives and their employees. However, there is some evidence that CEO’s of foreign corporations are beginning to emulate their U.S. counterparts and are slowly catching up. For example, research collated by the Centre for Corporate Governance at the University of Technology (2008), in Australia found that in 1992 a typical executive in Australia’s top 50 companies earned 27 times the wage of an average worker. By 2002, this had risen to 98 times the wage of an average worker.

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