CEO Pay Soars at Corps That Send Jobs Overseas; Biggest Political Donors..

[Nambe]

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 /U.S. Newswire

New Executive Excess Report: CEO Pay Soars at Companies That Send Jobs Overseas; Biggest Political Donors Also Pay CEOs More

Average CEO compensation at the 50 firms outsourcing the most service jobs increased by 46 percent in 2003, compared to a 9 percent average increase for all CEOs at the 365 large companies surveyed by Business Week. Top outsourcers earned an average of $10.4 million in 2003, 28 percent more than the average CEO compensation of $8.1 million. From 2001 to 2003, the top 50 outsourcing CEOs earned $2.2 billion while sending an estimated 200,000 jobs overseas.

Political contributions also appear to pay off. CEOs of the 70 companies that sponsored this summer's Democratic and Republican National Conventions saw their pay jump 49 percent in 2003, far outpacing the 9 percent raise for the average large company CEO. Similarly, the 38 CEOs who have personally raised at least $100,000 for either the Bush or Kerry presidential campaigns earned an average of $15.1 million in 2003, 86 percent more than the average large company CEO.

One sign of the political clout of corporate leaders is the current effort in Congress to block new rules that would require corporations to report all stock option grants as expenses in their financial statements. Current accounting rules have encouraged lavish options grants to executives. The report calculates that corporations have claimed an estimated $3.9 billion in tax deductions related to stock options exercised by 350 leading CEOs since 1997. ..

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

1. From Tech Republic: "Silicon Valley votes with its wallet" (7/23/04)

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-22_11-5281229.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=tr

Walter Hewlett and Carly Fiorina have been known to take opposite sides on an issue, and the 2004 presidential race appears to be no exception.

Fiorina, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, donated $2,000 to the campaign of George W. Bush, while Hewlett, the son of company founder Bill Hewlett, donated the same amount to John Kerry's campaign. The $2,000 is the most that an individual can contribute to a particular candidate, but is a drop in the bucket compared with the millions Hewlett spent trying to thwart HP's acquisition of Compaq Computer--a contest he lost in a vote nearly as tight as the 2000 presidential race.

Other well-known tech names, from Michael Dell to John Doerr, have lined up on both sides of the 2004 presidential campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records for 2003 and the first five months of 2004. The race is set to move into high gear with next week's Democratic National Convention in Boston and the Republican convention a few weeks later.

Silicon Valley is no stranger to the attentions of the presidential candidates, given the prominence of the high-tech sector in the U.S. economy. Kerry swung through San Jose in June to promise investments in research and broadband, plus tax breaks for start-ups and other small businesses. Bush has been urging a deregulatory approach to getting Americans hooked up to fast Internet connections.

[LauraK]

5. I've read three Eisenhower speaches where he warns of this.

If corporations gain control of the goverment it will be the end of democracy.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. kick

[DemoTex]

3. More on CEO pay from WaPo (Washington area CEO pay).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/articles/totalcompchart.html

Read it and weep.

[LauraK]

4. $3.9 Billion in tax avoidance is just the beginning....

According to JK, and he doesn't lie.

[slojim240]

6. Could we please some talking heads talk about this on the air?

Hell no, they probably will never mention it.