CEOs of the 50 U.S. firms that cut the most jobs during the recession earned 42% more than the average S&P 500 firm CEO, according to a study released by a liberal think tank in Washington.
The study also found that 36 of the 50 layoff leaders announced their layoffs at a time of positive earnings reports, suggesting a trend of squeezing workers to boost profits and to maintain high CEO pay. When CEOs cut jobs they are often very richly rewarded.
No Wall Street banks were included in this list, but three banks (Bank Of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan) were on the list of the 50 firms that laid off the most employees.
Overall, the study shows that executive pay remains astronomically high compared to previous years. After adjusting for inflation, CEO pay in 2009 more than doubled the CEO pay average for the previous decade, more than quadrupled the CEO pay average for the 1980s, and ran approximately eight times the CEO average for all the decades of the mid-20th century. The study claims that CEOs of major U.S. companies make 263 times the average compensation of American workers.
I don't know what the timeframe of these layoffs is supposed to be, but the IBM numbers are low by half. In 2009 IBM, whose motto used to include the phrase "Respect for the Individual", laid off approximately 15000 Americans.
Lindslydenise
I worked at at&t,inc and saw the impact of letting so many people go. Not only did they lay-off over 12K, they "transferred" at&t employees to out-sourcing vendors when they contracted out support of large numbers of IT applications.
Cetrice
Why are we surprised? I say everyone especially who is employed and even the unemployed should start to look at their gifts, passion and accomplishments and consider an independent gig. Thank God we live in US and at least right now we have the freedom to market our wares to the world. I think state career agencies should offer solid courses on using the web to generate revenue - which for many would be a life saver and for others their entree into entrepreneurship and possibly competition with the greedy elite.
psdhingra
Nothing new! It has always been the tendency of one man building their own castles over the graves of several other people.
Jo
Jason, I understand your comment, but I don't accept it. A comparison: My brother-in-law owns a small business with about 50 employees. He has done everything he could to avoid laying off people in this economy... If his business did not pick up this year (which it has), he had planned to ask everybody to take a pay cut... and he planned on taking a pay cut himself. No, he doesn't have to answer to stock holders and that gives him much more leeway in running his company. But he is a moral, decent man and he would have a hard time living with himself if he put some of his employees on the street while he pulled in a profit bonus in these recessionary times.
My sense is that anyone who earns millions of dollars while they put workers on the street is sorely lacking in morality and decency. I don't doubt that some of these cuts were necessary due to the business climate. But can anybody imagine a CEO going to his/her Board of Directors and saying, "We've had to lay off 20.000 workers to maintain our viability as a company. In deference to the people who have lost their jobs, my executive staff and I have decided to forgo our bonuses this year and take less than we are owed in compensation. I know that I can personally survive on two million this year. We would like to give the money that would have been given to us to our departing workers as severence. We know that for someone who has just been put out of work, two or three thousand is a lot of money... They can pay their mortgages for an extra month or two."
No... I can't imagine that either. Entitlement, greed... It's just not good.
Jayson
Let’s look at Fred in the number 1 spot above. Fred earned quite a bit of money at $49.7M and laid off a lot of people, 16K. So let’s divide all of Fred's money between the 16,000 he laid off and give them all their equal share of $3,106.25. How long do you think that will last them? Maybe you all should quit your whining and either move to Cuba where you can all be equally poor or man-up and go out and make yourself better. Fred's actions saved the jobs of many more employees and earned a greater return for the stock holders which is what he is paid to do.
Denise
I disagree based on my experience at my company which is at spot #6. The effort was to bring in greater profits and to increase the value of the company stock. It failed and the stock has stayed relatively flat. The overall idea was that having off-shore staff maintain the majority of IT applications would reduce the costs associated with having an IT department stateside, even if the work performed was of poorer quality than that done by us stateside.
Cashpot1
Oh and America, be sure these greedy, arrogant scumbags get their tax breaks too...we wouldn't want them to go without in any way. The country owes it to them, right?
This is interesting. The CEO's make money but, the lower employees (the little guys) get the layoff notice..... Welcome to America, huh?
Sus
What is so unbelievable is in all cases except Verizon if the CEO was a little less greedy all these employees would have jobs. It really shows where the greed lays in the US.
Christopher King
Very interesting. I think Kathy Harless was accountable for a lot of the layoffs via the Verizon Directory Side of the Business. I think he was extremely taken a back when so many of the Directory Employees took their rift package. They lost so many good people during this period of time.
Cnsavvy
JP, one of the culprits, bought a firm that I helped build...I held on to stock waiting for years waiting for the acquisition. They bought the firm at a basement price rendering my stock of little value. The past twenty years has just been in the words of Gekko - Greed! In many case just and fair in the biz world is considered weakness & loyalty is considered a liability.
Gary
Thanks for nothing #10 Ivan Ho! My wife was one of 432 you let go at your Birmingham Verizon site. Hope you enjoy your greenbacks at their expense. Your management over the site for the last year was non-existant. You really shoud dig into that subject and let the smoke out of your drawers.
Chris Lee
Has anyone looked at the same question as to how does our current and previous working class generation look upon their contributions as CEO-Board of Directors, and say what have we truly done in running these corporations to be entitled to such compensation and perks. When I look at this question Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were the last pioneers and innovators that contributed enough to their corporations that truly earned them their compensation. Today our CEO live off that fat and continue to cut human capital including the arrogance to go back to the retired class that left them a job and say hey old man you don't deserve your benefits any longer so for me to get a huge compensation package I am taking away yours, tough luck!
