American executive pay is 475 times the factory floor worker's pay

[cornermouse]

Venezuela, the closest is 50 times the factory floor worker's pay. Britain is 22 times, Canada 20 times, France 15 times, and Germany 12 times.

http://www.pbs.org/now/

Hmmm.... Don't certain segments of our society tend to flog the Europeans and Canada for their "socialized" health care? Could it be that they have healthcare because their CEOs are paid less, more reasonable salaries? I don't think their corporations function any worse than ours do. Maybe its time for stockholders to force our CEOs to take pay and benefit cuts.

[ComerPerro]

1. That's why any "argument" saying that healthcare is bankrupting companies

is bullshit.

"They started to go into the red when they tried to add health coverage for their employees."


No, they went into the red because their mismanaging idiot CEOs are overpaid assholes.

[cornermouse]

6. Yep.

[Orrin_73]

21. Well said my fried, I could not agree more

Long-haired preachers come out every night,
Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;
But when asked how 'bout something to eat
They will answer with voices so sweet:
You will eat, bye and bye
In that glorious land above the sky;
Work and pray,
Live on hay,
You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

"The Preacher and the Slave"

[acmejack]

2. Then no one will want to be CEOs!

Don't you realize how hard it will become to recruit quality men & women to run America's corporations?

[cornermouse]

8. Right.

20-25 times worker's salaries just isn't enough to live off of. :shrug:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. They can still be millionaires...

...IF they lead the company into making profits as they're supposed to do. Participation in profits is fair IMHO.

No profits --> dinky middle-class salary.

Then again, I suppose you wrote in sarcasm.

[Missy M]

3. The American executives would make it even more if they...

could. The highest paid executives in this country are the ones who are hired to go in and slash and burn. The factory workers are either left without jobs or big pay and benefit cuts. Unions must become strong again to stop this.

[cornermouse]

11. If someone doesn't turn it around, we will become the

newest third world country. That's a fact.

[Missy M]

16. Yes, it must be turned around and it has to start now. We are...

already well on our way to becoming the new third world country.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. I love the way these CEOs lower the wages by outsourcing

the work to third world countries, but then, doesn't it make sense to replace them with foreign CEOs that will accept lower wages too?

[cornermouse]

12. Works for me....

:toast:

[SammyWinstonJack]

27. Exactly what SHOULD happen to the Greedy heartless bastards!

And the sooner the better! Outsource the CEOs!

[lostnfound]

5. Gosh, where did they find any 'factory floor workers' in the U.S.?

Do we even have factories anymore?!

Oh wait, the GOP was working on reclassifying fast food restaurants as 'manufacturing'.

Our economy has gotten so lopsided it's unbelievable.

[cornermouse]

14. They aren't limiting themselves to the factories any more.

They've been working on the rest of it.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Dupe

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. Dupe

[cornermouse]

13. Yep.

:cry: and :grr:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

10. It's trickle up economics... good for the few, bad for Amerika. nt.

[Buns_of_Fire]

15. I think of it as Trickle-ON Economics

They get the Golden Parachutes.
We get the Golden Showers.

[MetaTrope]

17. Lovely...it's the American Dream...

[cornermouse]

18. Says it all.

That second chart? I need a magnifying glass to help me get a good look that factory floor worker.

[derby378]

19. You should watch THE CORPORATION sometime

I don't think it directly addresses the disparity between CEO pay and floor worker pay, but it does help illustrate how difficult it can be to change the current trend in America.

[Earth_First]

26. Here's the trailer for The Corporation:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2574551386504171943&q=Corporation

[Telly Savalas]

20. I don't see where in the link that information is given.

If the average American factory floor worker is making $20K, then this means the average executive is $9.5 million. This is perhaps typical compensation for the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but other executives for such companies likely make less, and for the thousands of smaller corporations executives almost certainly make less.

[Telly Savalas]

22. Oh, I see. On the thingy on the left.

It's still not very clear where the hell they're getting those numbers from though.

[cornermouse]

24. PBS's Now.

You might want to read through some of the transcripts. It has remained a quality show even with shorter air time and after Moyers left.

[Telly Savalas]

25. To clarify:

Here's the salary info for the top 5 Fortune 500 companies (note this is just CEO's not other executive officers who are typically paid a good deal less):

1. Walmart: CEO pay $5.37 million ( http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=WMT )
2. Exxon Mobil: CEO pay $1.96 million ( http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=XOM )
3. General Motors: CEO pay $4.66 million ( http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=GM )
4. Ford Motors: CEO pay $0 ($5.33 million in exercised stock options) ( http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=F )
5. Chevron: CEO pay $5.46 million ( http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=CVX )

This is the "take home pay" that the link talks about. The CEO's typically receive stock options, but with the exception of Ford, where it's the only form of compensation, there were less than $2M exercised in each case.

So while there's no argument that Americans workers are being shafted and that CEO's are overcompensated, that "435 times" number is kind of smelly and I wouldn't use it in a debate.