Let’s say you run a toy company. Your retarding poison toys earn you a well-deserved public flogging, which you escape by scapegoating Chinese workers. The media doesn’t realize, until it’s too late, that the real culprits are the dangerous domestic designers you employ. Sales inch up marginally. Do you deserve $12.2 million, a 68% raise? Mattel’s Board of Directors thinks so!

[Mattel CEO Robert Eckert’s] other compensation included $213,350 for personal use of company aircraft, $116,346 in company contributions to a deferred compensation plan, and another $34,669 to pay for other perks, including automobile expenses, financial counseling, physical exams, insurance premiums, home security and a country club membership.

Eckert, who has held the chief executive post at Mattel since 2000, did not receive preferential earnings on deferred compensation or a bonus last year.

The executive’s compensation package totaled $12,208,752, compared with $7,278,178 in 2006.

Are toys or children any safer? Does Robert Eckert deserve his millions?

Mattel CEO got $12.2 million in 2007 compensation [AP]
A Losing Year at Countrywide, but Not for Chief [NYT]
PREVIOUSLY: The Unpleasant Truth Behind Mattel’s Unexpected Apology
Mattel’s Reputation With The CPSC Is Officially Crappy

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