Tag Archives: Chamber of commerce

U.S. CEO Pay Jumps Minimum Of 27 Percent Last Year, Survey Finds

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U.S. CEO Pay Jumps Minimum Of 27 Percent Last Year, Survey Finds.

While the incomes of so many Americans remain the same size or get smaller, corporate chiefs can’t say they’re suffering in quite the same way.

American CEOs saw pay increases of between 27 and 40 percent last year, according to a GovernanceMetrics International survey cited by the Guardian. In addition, the median value of CEOs profits on stock options jumped to $1.3 million from $950,400.

This, even after Congress passed financial reform regulations that included provisions aimed at making CEO pay more transparent by allowing shareholders to weigh in.

The survey’s findings may resonate with Occupy movement activists, who have been railing against income inequality since the protests first started. Indeed, CEO pay by itself exceeded the amount that his or her corporation paid in income taxes in at least 25 cases last year. And in the year before America’s highest-highest-paid corporate chief netted more than $145 million, U.S. median income fell to below $27,000, meaning half of all earners made less than that.

But John Hammergren, CEO of healthcare provider McKesson, isn’t the only boss taking home the big bucks. JPMorgan Chase Chief Jamie Dimon got a $19 million raise in 2010 and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein netted an extra $3.6 million in bonuses last year.

The news is a good sign for people in the top one percent of earners, who saw their incomes drop by roughly a third in the official years of the recession, according to a recent report by The New York Times. Still, even after that fall, the net worth of one percenters remained 200 times higher than that of the median national income, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Some CEOs even got huge pay packages for not doing their jobs. Eugene Isenberg took home $100 million for dropping his title as CEO of Nabors Industries in October. While Dougless Foshee, the CEO of natural gas pipeline operator El Paso, became eligible for an exit package worth $95 million after the company was acquired by rival Kinder Morgan.

Still, some don’t seem to mind the huge CEO paydays. The vast majority of corporate shareholders say that CEOs are being compensated correctly, according to an October study from research firm Equilar.

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Human Red Carpet for US Chamber of Commerce: Classic, Creative and Awesome

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Human Red Carpet for US Chamber of Commerce: Classic, Creative and Awesome | Crooks and Liars.

This is what I love about the people who are occupying these different venues. Is there a better metaphor for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce than a human red carpet?

This was from the U.S. Chamber holiday party last night, and if there was ever a better venue for the 99 percent to confront the 1 percent, I’m not sure what it might be.

Via International Business Times:

“This is Bruce Josten’s let-them-eat-cake moment,” Christie Setzer of Chamber Watch told Mother Jones, although the publication reports she refused to directly approach Josten.

The event was one of several protests that took place in Washington, D.C. this week. On Monday, unemployed protesters from across the country gathered in D.C. for a week of demonstrations dubbed “Take Back the Capitol,” during which thousands of Americans occupied the offices of several members of the U.S. House and Senate and swarmed K Street to speak out against the influence of corporate lobbyists on the nation’s political discourse.

A report released on Wednesday from the non-partisan Public Campaign found that 30 major U.S. corporations have spent more money lobbying Congress than on paying federal income taxes between 2008 and 2010, an example of the undue influence Occupiers argue has corrupted the American political system.

In the 2012 campaign cycle, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has used their resources to alter a photograph of Senator Sherrod Brown to make him look like a wild-eyed lunatic. They are backing the evil SOPA initiative to kill the internet with big lobbying dollars, lobbying against food and consumer product safety regulations, and will likely throw a lot of money at the Massachusetts Senate race between Elizabeth Warren and the bankers’ handmaiden, Scott Brown.

Did anyone actually dare to walk on the red carpet? According to ThinkProgress, no, though Bruce Josten stood in front of it to greet his guests as they arrived.

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