By DEBORAH SOLOMON,Wall Street Journal
Ken Feinberg is deciding how much executives make
The U.S. pay czar will slash compensation for the 25 highest-paid employees at seven firms receiving large sums of government aid and demand a host of corporate -governance changes at those firms,according to people familiar with the matter.
Kenneth Feinberg,the Treasury Department’s special master for compensation,will lower total compensation for 175 employees by an average of 50%,these people said. As expected,the biggest cut will be to salaries,which will drop 90% on average.
But while the overall levels will fall,some executives will still walk away with large paychecks. For instance,several Bank of America Corp. employees will still receive compensation totaling millions of dollars.
At the same time,Mr. Feinberg will demand a series of corporate-governance changes at the firms,including splitting the positions of chairman and chief executive officer;requiring boards of directors to create a committee to assess risk,and eliminating staggered boards.
How in the World can a czar do this slashing pay he is the one who needs to be slashed and put out on his head in the street. obama the mraxists and communists says he did not know he was doing this liar liar liar liar liar liar .People that voted for this change how is it working for you all???????????
I think it's great. It's time these puffed up,overpaid egomaniacs rejoin the real world. The decent paying jobs for average Americans began disappearing when companies started paying 'too few too much'. Maybe if we get rid of all those outrageous salaries 'at the top'we'll see some decent wages once again for the 'average'American worker. Oh,I know,the companies are crying about losing their 'best'people. How they can 'go across the street'and get more money. If the money is all they're interested in then let 'em go. I guarantee there are smart people out there who will work for less than a king's ransom and still get the job done! It's time we give intelligence,rather than greed,a chance. It just might work.
I am skeptical that the TARP money is stimulating economy by generating new employment or sustaining the current head count level. Many of these TARP bailed out companies have not reduced salaries of their employees,rather they continue to slash jobs. Needless to say that employing more people is better to the economy than paying higher salary to a few.
In this context the Compensation Czar's attempt to cap employee salaray becomes more relevant. Though I appreciate Compensation Czar's efforts to regulate executive compensations of government bailed out companies,my suggestion is not to limit that effort to top level executives,but to expand the scope to cover at least up to middle management level. And also it is necessary to make sure that these companies use money released from pay cuts for hiring new employees and or to sustain existing jobs.
Employers like ours ( IT Service provider) are surviving in this economic downturn by cutting employee salary across the board. However I do not think any of these TARP 7- for sure the Autofinancier in TARP 7 list- cut their employee salary. Also it is noticeable that these TARP-7 are cutting down their head counts resulting reduced cash inflow in to the economy.
TARP is financed by people's money,and it should be utilized for the advantage of a broad spectrum of people in the society,not to over stuff the wallets of a few! Go ahead Compensation Czar,we are with you..!!