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15-11-2013, 05:30 AM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
The growing wealth disparity between CEOs and workers finally may be catching up to corporate America.
With the Securities and Exchange Commission pushing an ambitious new proposal that would mandate companies to disclose gaps between executive and worker pay, a new study which does just that will only add fuel to the debate.
CEO pension plans are now worth an average 239 times more than the retirement plans for the employees they supervise, according to data compiled by NerdWallet on the companies with the 10 highest gaps.
Compensation for chief executives at those companies is 550 times higher.
Company CEO pensionvalue Average 401k balance per worker CEO pension multiple
1. Walmart $113,157,559 $18,303 6,182
2. McKesson $115,822,288 $122,768 943
3. GE $53,184,790 $83,386 638
4. AT&T $42,744,354 $78,223 546
5. Phillip Morris $60,450,060 $238,577 253
6. Pfizer $34,541,840 $153,860 225
7. ExxonMobil $68,072,125 $469,885 145
8. Bank of America $7,698,032 $54,762 141
9. Google $9,105,779 $70,517 129
10. Oracle $14,866,191 $153,195 97
Median 239
Source: Nerdwallet Note: Google and Oracle do not offer pension plans to their CEOs. Amounts reflected are for their deferred compensation plans.
That's a lot of ammunition for those pushing for tighter controls over executive compensation.
(Read more: Billionaires say what? Six words only they know)
"Maybe CEOS won't be bothered, but I think workers will," said Dana Lime, product manager at NerdWallet. "This will hurt morale and to some extent productivity."
Perhaps as importantly, the numbers will stoke the debate over the SEC plan, which in turn was guided by the Dodd-Frank reform act.
(Read more: CEO Pay: Another statistic coming for investors)
SEC officials have battled over the plan's merits, with proponents saying it will tell shareholders whether company heads are performing up to their level of pay, while opponents believe there is no other purpose to the law than "to shame CEOs," as Republican commissioner Michael Piwowar described it.
In a statement to Reuters, Piwowar said "the shame from this rule should not be put on CEOS—it should be put on the five of us," he said. "Shame on us for putting special interests ahead of investors."
According to NerdWallet's numbers, which were gleaned from proxy statements, government reports and data firm BrightScope, Wal-Mart leads the disparity, with CEO Mike Duke having a retirement nest egg more than 6,000 times the size of his average worker's 401(k) plan.
(Read more: 10 ways to get your retirement plan back on track)
Duke's compensation—including salary and other forms—comes to $20.7 million a year, which is 836 times larger than the average non-manager compensation and 305 times the average manager compensation, NerdWallet said.
Those numbers don't tell the whole story, said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan.
"Mike has been with the company since 1996—for nearly 20 years. He's been voluntarily contributing to the deferred contribution (plan) since then, so you can imagine when you're working for a company for a while, the number gets higher," she said.
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James Gorman, Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley says the bank's salaries could improve as business gets better.
Wal-Mart employees, meanwhile, amassed more than $770 million in quarterly bonuses in 2012.
"We offer our associates pay and benefits that are as good or even better than our retail competitors, and we are a pay-for-performance company. That includes our executives as well as our field members and corporate staff," Buchanan said. "There are a lot of opportunities for workers to drive up their own (compensation)."
(Read more: Wal-Mart earnings beat, but same-store sales slip)
A General Electric representative also said more factors need to be taken into consideration when measuring CEO Jeff Immelt's retirement package.
"It is not accurate to measure pension value without also looking at length of service," spokesman Seth Martin said. "In this case, the value of Jeff's pension reflects the 31 years he has been at GE and the 12 years he has been CEO."
Other companies on the list did not return requests for comment.
Not surprisingly, Oracle topped the list of companies with the biggest discrepancy between CEO and worker pay, as its leader, Larry Ellison, makes just below $80 million, 1,262 times the average nonmanager salary and 571 times the manager's salary.
"This will be a wake-up call in terms of governance," Lime, of NerdWallet, said. "There's going to be pressure just from a political standpoint to bring those multiples down."
—By CNBC's Jeff Cox. Follow him on Twitter
@JeffCoxCNBCcom
.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?168360-These-CEO-pension-values-will-make-your-head-spin&goto=newpost).
The growing wealth disparity between CEOs and workers finally may be catching up to corporate America.
With the Securities and Exchange Commission pushing an ambitious new proposal that would mandate companies to disclose gaps between executive and worker pay, a new study which does just that will only add fuel to the debate.
CEO pension plans are now worth an average 239 times more than the retirement plans for the employees they supervise, according to data compiled by NerdWallet on the companies with the 10 highest gaps.
Compensation for chief executives at those companies is 550 times higher.
Company CEO pensionvalue Average 401k balance per worker CEO pension multiple
1. Walmart $113,157,559 $18,303 6,182
2. McKesson $115,822,288 $122,768 943
3. GE $53,184,790 $83,386 638
4. AT&T $42,744,354 $78,223 546
5. Phillip Morris $60,450,060 $238,577 253
6. Pfizer $34,541,840 $153,860 225
7. ExxonMobil $68,072,125 $469,885 145
8. Bank of America $7,698,032 $54,762 141
9. Google $9,105,779 $70,517 129
10. Oracle $14,866,191 $153,195 97
Median 239
Source: Nerdwallet Note: Google and Oracle do not offer pension plans to their CEOs. Amounts reflected are for their deferred compensation plans.
That's a lot of ammunition for those pushing for tighter controls over executive compensation.
(Read more: Billionaires say what? Six words only they know)
"Maybe CEOS won't be bothered, but I think workers will," said Dana Lime, product manager at NerdWallet. "This will hurt morale and to some extent productivity."
Perhaps as importantly, the numbers will stoke the debate over the SEC plan, which in turn was guided by the Dodd-Frank reform act.
(Read more: CEO Pay: Another statistic coming for investors)
SEC officials have battled over the plan's merits, with proponents saying it will tell shareholders whether company heads are performing up to their level of pay, while opponents believe there is no other purpose to the law than "to shame CEOs," as Republican commissioner Michael Piwowar described it.
In a statement to Reuters, Piwowar said "the shame from this rule should not be put on CEOS—it should be put on the five of us," he said. "Shame on us for putting special interests ahead of investors."
According to NerdWallet's numbers, which were gleaned from proxy statements, government reports and data firm BrightScope, Wal-Mart leads the disparity, with CEO Mike Duke having a retirement nest egg more than 6,000 times the size of his average worker's 401(k) plan.
(Read more: 10 ways to get your retirement plan back on track)
Duke's compensation—including salary and other forms—comes to $20.7 million a year, which is 836 times larger than the average non-manager compensation and 305 times the average manager compensation, NerdWallet said.
Those numbers don't tell the whole story, said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan.
"Mike has been with the company since 1996—for nearly 20 years. He's been voluntarily contributing to the deferred contribution (plan) since then, so you can imagine when you're working for a company for a while, the number gets higher," she said.
Play Video
Morgan Stanley: Compensation may rise
James Gorman, Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley says the bank's salaries could improve as business gets better.
Wal-Mart employees, meanwhile, amassed more than $770 million in quarterly bonuses in 2012.
"We offer our associates pay and benefits that are as good or even better than our retail competitors, and we are a pay-for-performance company. That includes our executives as well as our field members and corporate staff," Buchanan said. "There are a lot of opportunities for workers to drive up their own (compensation)."
(Read more: Wal-Mart earnings beat, but same-store sales slip)
A General Electric representative also said more factors need to be taken into consideration when measuring CEO Jeff Immelt's retirement package.
"It is not accurate to measure pension value without also looking at length of service," spokesman Seth Martin said. "In this case, the value of Jeff's pension reflects the 31 years he has been at GE and the 12 years he has been CEO."
Other companies on the list did not return requests for comment.
Not surprisingly, Oracle topped the list of companies with the biggest discrepancy between CEO and worker pay, as its leader, Larry Ellison, makes just below $80 million, 1,262 times the average nonmanager salary and 571 times the manager's salary.
"This will be a wake-up call in terms of governance," Lime, of NerdWallet, said. "There's going to be pressure just from a political standpoint to bring those multiples down."
—By CNBC's Jeff Cox. Follow him on Twitter
@JeffCoxCNBCcom
.
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.sammyboy.com/showthread.php?168360-These-CEO-pension-values-will-make-your-head-spin&goto=newpost).