Republican officials said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. had agreed to demands from lawmakers in both parties to limit the pay of executives whose companies benefit from the bailout. The enormous pay packages of some Wall Street executives, coupled with the realization among nonwealthy Americans that the crisis could affect their financial foundations, have created an incendiary issue on Capitol Hill.

That's a good term! It's inclusive and condescending at the same time. "Nonwealthy Americans." I'm a "Nonwealthy American," how about you?

Paulson Said to Give Way on C.E.O. Pay; Bush to Speak [NYT]
(Photo: spinadelic )

"C. William Jones, executive director of the BellTel Retirees, said he was delighted with the board's decision. "I'm somewhat puzzled as to why they are delaying it till the 2009 meeting, but it certainly is a step in the right direction," Mr. Jones said."

"James F. Reda, an independent executive pay consultant in New York City, said most United States and foreign investors he talks to favor say on pay proposals. "I don't really see any investors who don't like them," he said. "But most directors hate say on pay because it undermines them."

The shareholder vote is only advisory, meaning that it can be easily ignored by compensation-happy company directors.

Verizon to Put Executive Pay to Shareholder Vote [NYT]
PREVIOUSLY: CEO Pay Up 298%, Average Worker's? 4.3% (1995-2005)

It looks like while CEO pay rose 298.2% by 2005, and corporate profits by 106.7%, the average worker pay has only risen by 4.3%.

The chart seems to show no direct relationship between CEO pay and profit performance, however, CEO pay does track nearly parallel with the S&P 500. That stock options are included in the CEO pay, and those have gotten more popular in recent years, might be a factor. Another is that the CEO population is smaller than that of the average workers, so naturally there's going to be more volatility.

Profits or losses, stocks up or down, the average worker gets paid nearly the same. Maybe the breed of CEOs is just working harder while everyone else is just treading water... — BEN POPKEN

CEO Pay, Stock Prices, Corporate Profits, Worker Pay, and Inflation, 1990-2005 [FairEconomy] (Thanks to something_amazing!)

Really? Is this the same man whom one year ago Business Week magazine hailed as one of the "Best Managers of 2004"? Says our tipster, name withheld to protect his job security,

Everyone who was in a position to get him removed has retired, resigned, or been terminated... There is no one in the company shareholders would trust to replace him.

philip: The last couple of months our COO was fired, our Vice President of Customer Service resigned on two days notice, and our Chariman stepped down. Gary Forsee, our CEO, temporarily ran all of these positions at once.
benpopken: eeks
philip: Yeah VP Customer Service was the first to accept a Severance Package (a golden parachute I'm sure) when Gary Forsee announced 5,000 layoffs on January 7th. It was a bad, bad day.
philip: Everyone who was in a position to get him removed has retired, resigned, or been terminated.
philip: There is no one in the company shareholders would trust to replace him. He has ensured himself [a bulletproof] position. He is Chariman, CEO, and President.
philip: We just got a COO last week after almost three months without one... And nobody in executive leadership is experienced enough to lead a $40B corporation with 52 million subscribers. So even though company performance is outrageously disappointing, shareholders are fearful of how much worse it could be.
philip: Objectives for 2007 posted a couple of weeks ago and I have never seen metric demands that are so outrageous. A lot of good people will lose their job and I imagine a lot of good customers will string together tin cans and string. I'm not sure that Sprint is the worst because all things considered I have mixed feelings on if, as a consumer, I hate Sprint or Cingular more... But we are certainly not headed in the right direction and we show no hope of improving in the near future.
benpopken: sounds like you need a new leader
benpopken: but the shareholders are too pussy
philip: Exactly
philip: And the truly worthy talent within our corporation are all being walked out the door for not meeting goals. Or they're opening company policy up for cute 20s-something pro-consumerists bloggers to tear apart for everyone to read.
benpopken: ha!

— BEN POPKEN

Previous leaks from our Sprint moles.

philip:...in our recent all-employee webcast... [Gary Forsee] was very blunt. "These were our goals, we missed them by a lot, we are laying people off, the goals will be stricter, and compensation will be moved to (AND I QUOTE) "somewhere close to 0%"... Can't say that I like him much. Our all-employee web cast was Gary saying, "Am I the only one who knows what I'm doing?" and he evaded a lot of legitimate concerns in the usual corporate evasion manner.
philip: my favorite part [was] the open question session. An employee had the balls to ask...

philip:..."So compensation for specialists and managers is being reduced to somewhere around 0%... despite having less resources and assistance to do more work and achieve higher goals. Will these compensation cuts be the same at the executive level?" I think you might have something about 10,000 Sprint employees who could quote that 30-second piece of heaven verbatim.

5,000 layoffs were announced in January. Sprint is definitely not the happy place to work right now. This makes it even harder to find a sympathetic rep when you call for a billing adjustment. — BEN POPKEN

Previous leaks from our Sprint moles.