Layoffs = Money!
By Wink
Corporate boards of directors play a really fun game. It is called “How much can we pay ourselves before somebody screams?”
This is really a cool game, because nobody ever screams. Nobody seems to really care HOW much corporate execs get paid. Or that they get to determine their own paychecks.
Of course, it would be nice if you or I could decide the amounts that go on our own paychecks too, but we don’t get a vote.
Corporate execs do. Because most members of these boards fancy themselves as the next CEO, they make sure the CEO position is extremely well compensated.
How much do you think the big boss makes? Ten times the amount of the lowest paid worker at his company? Twenty-five times? 100 times?
If you guessed any of these, you are a piker. The average executive pay is 263 times the lowest paid employee.
If the bottom guy gets $20,000 annually (about $10/hr), the big dog, every year, gets $5,260,000, not counting perks. And you know the perks are good…
Amazingly, this level is actually down from a few years ago.
Remember though, this is just the average. Many execs get way more than 263 times the lowest worker.
How do already-generous salaries for mucky-mucks get ratcheted up even more? Bonuses!
It is no longer enough to get a huge paycheck for doing your job. What CEO would be willing to work for only 100 times the lowest paid employee gets? Not one worth his salt, that’s for sure. Nope, gotta have a bonus.
And in the corporate world, short time profits frequently mean big-time bonuses.
Not for the regular employees of course, never for the people who actually do the work for the company.
Just for the execs.
With multi-million dollar motivation, Mr. CEO will ask himself, “How, oh how can I make our stock price go up three points in the next quarter, or 12 points in the next 12 months?”
“I can sell off assets, like buildings, but soon I will run out of buildings. Nope, I need a bigger plan. How do I turn my measly 7-figure salary into an 8-figure salary? Here goes….”
- Lay off fulltime employees and hire temps, so we don’t have to offer them benefits.
- Ship service jobs (like phone work) overseas.
- Strip retirees of health insurance benefits.
Sweet. The ‘CEO Bonus Cash Machine’ can now work overtime !
1tom the wizard of
wrote on 24 September 2010 at 21:19
I can better that.a person i know has worked 30 years in the printing industry…business is way down…the jack booted thug of a boss is pinching pennies everywhere he can..(…but has hired yet more managers…..we will call it yet another cushion..for himself..and his buddies..)..).he has maybe 2 years actual time on machines..(..takes about 4 years to learn to operate one..let alone diff types..their latest angle is to lean on the older higher paid people.with 5 weeks vacation…with what they call surprise audits…which involve..(..not kidding..which way the ink knives are laid on the work bench…are lids on or off the cans..(..makes no diff..nit picking any and everything…and writing employees up on the most trivial things…and the 5 foot tall bitch punk of a boss…has the nerve to say…(..we are using this audit as a tool to take care of any senior employees who think they are going to coast into retirement…he further said…if a football team is having a losing season.. …(..his words..he said…should the senior members of the team be allowed to stay on the team…….from what i have learned…(..the EOC…equal opportunity commission…was not so amused by these reckless statements…anyway this is the how it was told to me…from what i have learned…the guy still works there ..but from what has been learned…does have good council….