Outrageous CEO Pay? How About Lowering Salaries of Longtime Workers like Joe the Machinist

[The Straight Story]

CEO compensation increases continue to be gaudy, but if you think they are overpaid take a look at the paycheck of Joe the machinist.

In what is sure to be a heavily debated think piece out of management consultancy Booz & Co., the case is made that employers should be reevaluating what they pay to people who have held their jobs for a length of time, in light of the readjusting employment market. And in some cases, that pay should be lowered or the employee retrained or terminated.

They lead with the example of Joe, a machinist at the same company for 25 years.

“Although Joe is a significant asset to his firm, his wages have gone up steadily while his responsibilities have remained largely unchanged. The result is that Joe is significantly overpaid as a machinist compared with co-workers who have been doing the same job for just two years,” write Booz consultants Harry Hawkes, Albert Kent and Vikas Bhalla.

http://www.bnet.com/blog/harvard/outrageous-ceo-pay-how-about-lowering-salaries-of-longtime-workers/12426

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

1. Yes, this is absolutely real and happening.

I get various sorts of freak-outs from various sorts of people when I even suggest that executives are overpaid.

[Blue_Tires]

2. that's been their mindset for awhile...

[dawg]

3. Does the article ever say how much Joe makes?

I clicked the link, but it's just too much bullshit for me to wade through today.

I'm guessing this "overpaid" machinist probably makes around $70K.

They're coming for all of us, folks.

[hfojvt]

8. you think he makes that much?

Because that would be overpaid in many communities. Back in 2000, the top pay at the factory where I was a temp was $17 which would be less than $24 today if they kept up with inflation. (Inflation calculator says $22.28).

[dawg]

12. I think that the one guy that they single out as an example for this kind of ...

class-based attack *might* make that much.

[canoeist52]

16. My machinist dh never made more than 49,000. a yr.

Now he's making 40,000. at the new shop after the old shop that he worked 30 yrs forwas sold and trashed. No machinists we knew ever made 70,000.

[theHandpuppet]

21. I was wondering the same thing

But then it's pretty obvious the writer left out that information on purpose as not to appear too outrageously shameless. Didn't work, bozo!

[SlimJimmy]

23. These are the most important two sentences of the article:

At Joe’s age and tenure, moreover, there could be legal implications to such a move. In short, the company would rather not fire Joe.

If a company tried to "fire" Joe without just cause, they would be subject to a lawsuit based on an unfair labor practice. Companies know this, and aren't as fired up to take these kinds of actions as the article might suggest.

[woo me with science]

4. This is war.

Make no mistake about it.

[Brickbat]

5. Wow -- do CEOs' duties change and accumulate so quickly and heavily they need those massive

increases every year? Seems to me that Joe the machinist is probably having to learn new equipment every few years, new "efficiencies" that MBA-toting "efficiency experts" install every year, new "safety" rules that people from the home office 100 miles away have come up with while sitting at a desk, and, most importantly, "increasing productivity" as the person on his left is laid off, and then the person on his right.

And if he's covered by a union contract, Booz & Co. can feel free to fuck right the hell off.

[Brickbat]

6. Also, this kind of hot bullshit just goes to show how bizarrely focused many companies are on the

short term. This is like nanosecond-level thinking, and it's disgusting.

[Initech]

7. No one is more overpaid than the CEO. Period. No debate.

What's it gonna take for us to stand up to these fucking assholes? I'm sick of this logic, or lack thereof.

[dana_b]

9. thank you

and surely a person giving 25 years of their life to a company is worth something?? Fuck these assholes who try to twist it back upon the workers. fuck them.

[Initech]

13. Exactly.

Fuck them. The logic that these corporate CEO scumfucks use to keep us from earning real wages so they can laugh all the way to the bank is just simply revolting. Frank Zappa once said "It Can't Happen Here", I hope we prove that wrong and it does happen here.

[Dawson Leery]

14. The CEO is paid regardless of performance.

[Initech]

18. The CEO gets huge bonuses, seven figure salaries, and generous pension and benefits regardless

Of performance. What do we get? An extra nickel per hour - if we're lucky. :grr: :mad:

[suffragette]

10. Hmm, and here's the reality

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x525927

A public union employee, a tea party activist, and a CEO are sitting at a table with a plate of a dozen cookies in the middle of it. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies, turns to the tea partier and says, 'Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie.

Also here:



But, this new article shows they don't give up on recycling and pushing the meme.

[Angry Dragon]

11. Assholes

[Johonny]

15. because experience has no value

you have a mission critical part, who do you want making it. Joe the 25 year experienced machinist, or Bob who is 1 week out of school?

[RagAss]

17. What kind of paid-off scum would write this shit ?

[dissidentboomer]

19. I won't comment. Just. Too. Angry. And "Joe" accepts this shit as his lot in life.

[DotGone]

20. Typical consultant bullshit

I guess "fire the bottom 10% every year no matter what their performance level" is a little long in the tooth and the snooty overpaid consultancy groups needed a new boilerplate recommendation.

[w8liftinglady]

22. sounds like the same kind of bullshit thrown at nurses

Hell,you've been a nurse for decades...why do you think you are more valuable than a fresh new graduate?