Turns out it is not even a nimble....
"Efforts to regulate CEO pay gain traction" by Katie Johnston | Globe Staff October 26, 2014
The soaring pay of corporate chief executives is spurring efforts to pass laws to limit their compensation and close the widening gap in earnings between workers and top executives.
Such laws have been proposed in at least three states, including Massachusetts, as well as in Switzerland. Proponents have yet to succeed in enacting these measures, but they vow to keep pressing the issue.
If you can't get it through in this environment than you might as well forget all the $hit-$how fooley promi$es.
I'm also not liking the deception in the headline, but I suppose that is the swill you must serve up the elite of Bo$ton as they kick back on a Sunday to enjoy John Henry's handout. That's why he bought. Something to pass around to all his friends in Boston.
But back to the construction of the article. Efforts are gaining traction, but have yet to go anywhere. Looks like it's all $tuck in the mud if you ask me, and oh how I pine for a filibuster-proof Democrat Congre$$ that will addre$$ the$e i$$u.... oh, right, had that 6 years ago and the problem has gotten exponentially wor$e.
What was the point of this, to bolster Democrats for last Tuesday?
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“There is a growing movement that targets exorbitant executive pay,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington think tank that advocates for lower income families. “People are looking for things that policy makers can do that will insure that economic growth gets to everybody and goes beyond those at the top.”
Yeah, it was called the Occupy Wall Street movement that was smashed by authority (btw, Hong Kong has dropped off the radar, thus indicating that the CIA effort has failed).
And can you blame me (more on the way this weekend as the ski resorts scramble) for Kerryng not to read certain things?
At least the Globe does make you think!
Income inequality has emerged as a major political and policy issue, and chief executive pay has become a potent symbol of the growing divide between rich and poor. Many economists argue that the widening gap hurts the economy: When wealth is concentrated instead of broadly distributed, it curtails the spending of middle- and lower-income consumers who ultimately drive the US economy.
In the United States, compensation for chief executives soared 937 percent between 1978 and 2013, while the average worker’s compensation climbed just 10 percent, according to the Economic Policy Institute. CEOs at the top 350 firms made an average of $15.2 million in compensation last year – nearly 296 times higher than the average worker’s earnings of about $52,000.
In 1978, the ratio of CEO to average worker pay was 30:1. In the 1980s, the late management consultant Peter Drucker recommended a ratio of 20:1 to prevent low worker morale.
The gap varies between industries and companies. Average CEO compensation at Starbucks, McDonald’s and other major fast-food companies was $23.8 million last year, more than 1,000 times what the average worker made, according to Demos, a New York public policy group. More than half of fast-food workers’ families nationwide rely on public assistance, according a study by the University of California and the University of Illinois.
See: Fast Food Workers Co$ting Taxpayers
In Massachusetts, TJX Cos. chief executive Carol Meyrowitz made $11.1 million in compensation in fiscal 2012, 378 times more than the average employee’s pay and benefits of $29,310, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
And they moved their headquarters to Ohio after cashing in on the generous tax breaks of Massachusetts.
EMC Corp.’s leader Joseph Tucci earned $16.6 million, 283 times the average employee’s $58,565. (An EMC spokesman said there was a smaller ratio last year, but did not provide the data.)
Related: Boston $cientific Censorship
It is of mutual intere$t, I gue$$.
At the state’s hospitals, at least four chief executives received more than $2 million in 2012, according to federal tax filings. The nurses union estimates the lowest-paid hospital employee makes around $16,000 a year — a ratio of 125:1.
Limiting chief executive pay is viewed by some lawmakers and policy makers as one step toward closing the income gap. The approaches vary.
A few weeks ago, US Representative Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, introduced legislation that would prevent companies from claiming tax deductions for CEO bonuses over $1 million if they don’t give employees raises that keep up with productivity and cost of living increases.
And it is going nowhere.
Last year, Swiss voters considered, but ultimately rejected, a measure that would have barred executives from earning more than 12 times as much as the lowest-paid workers.
No $hit?
Would have pi$$ed off certain people?
Another tactic: transparency. The 2010 Dodd-Frank law to overhaul the US financial system requires publicly traded companies to report the compensation ratio between the chief executive and median employee — a measure not yet enforced.
What?
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Narrowing the income gap can be good for business, said Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton. His research shows that once people are well compensated, more money doesn’t motivate them to work harder. But when people know they are making considerably less than others, productivity drops.
But some analysts say the role CEO compensation plays in income inequality is overstated. The American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning Washington think tank, notes that studies revealing huge pay gaps are limited to large, publicly traded companies. If all firms are considered, it says, the divide shrinks to 4:1.
Others point out that a blanket ratio doesn’t make sense, given the complexity of some executive’s jobs, and cutting CEO pay to redistribute it to workers would not make much of a difference. Michael Saltsman, research director at the Employment Policies Institute, a conservative Washington think tank, called efforts to limit CEO pay a “stunt” that unions use as bargaining chips.
Even if the top five executives at Yum! Brands — the parent of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and other fast food chains – cut their salaries in half and redistributed the difference to their nearly 464,000 part-time employees, each worker would get only a 5-cent-an-hour raise, Saltsman estimated.
Still, some executives have been moved to act. In July, interim Kentucky State University president Raymond Burse, a retired General Electric executive, took a voluntary $90,000 pay cut to boost wages of the school’s lowest-paid workers from $7.25 to $10.25 an hour.
“This is not a publicity stunt,” he told the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper. “I did this for the people.”
Because it's a $limming middle class that can no longer buy things except in Brazil?
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Speaking of publicity $tunts:
"Taking stock of unemployment rate’s shortcomings" by Evan Horowitz and Jay Fitzgerald | Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent November 02, 2014
Part of the problem is the last recession was so broad and deep that it created record numbers of long-term unemployed, and ultimately record numbers of discouraged workers giving up job searches. Fundamental changes in the US labor market also could be having an impact as more employers rely on part-time and contract workforces rather than full-time employees with full benefits.
Everything people like me have been saying, but the return argument has always been no, no, with a huge dollop of propaganda from the pre$$ and authority.
Some policy makers argue that the unemployment rate understates the weakness of the labor market, and the Fed should move cautiously in withdrawing stimulus from the economy.
They don't have to worry because Japan's central bank is going to pick up the $lack and start printing money to keep the $cheme going just a little longer.
There's an indication that there may be something wrong with the good-news story touted in unemployment numbers....
Nooooooooooooooo!!!!!
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The problem is the rate, as it is calculated, doesn’t capture what is often called “hidden unemployment.”
You just found one, readers.
UPDATE: Low-wage workers applaud sick-time victory
