Overcompensated Leaders and Their Tools
According to the Institute for Policy Studies, American CEOs make 263 times the average compensation for American workers. The average pay for CEOs is eight times what it was in 1970 while American workers are taking home less in real weekly wages than they were in the 1970s.
Most Americans seem to be okay with that. A good number want to extend the tax cuts for these rich folks for reasons that escape me. And we all know the inequities will only continue to grow: The system for paying CEOs is broken beyond repair since the people in control of the system, who are the CEOs and their boardroom buddies, are the ones who benefit from it.
Randall Stephenson, the CEO of AT&T, made more than $20 million in 2009 while laying off around 12,000 people. Many Americans, including a good number of workers who are making less now than they or their parents did in 1970, seem to care more about protecting Mr. Stephenson’s right to earn and keep as much money as he can than about the 12,000 people who lost their jobs because of his management team’s incompetence. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg only earned around $17 million in 2009 but he laid off more than 21,000 folks. William Weldon at Johnson & Johnson had total compensation in 2009 of $25,569,844 and his company laid off nearly 9,000 people.
These obscene compensation packages are only going to get more obscene but at some point, the workers who have been getting shafted…
Steve George | September 2nd, 2010 | Continued
About this Site
Steve George
Steve George founded Baldrige.com, the leading online community for Baldrige supporters, visitors interested in Baldrige, and anyone who wants to build a well-run organization.
Steve wrote his first award application in 1989 and has since worked with five Baldrige Award recipients, several state award winners, and dozens of other organizations including hospitals, manufacturers, service companies, small businesses, nonprofits, colleges, an army base, and a district court.
A trained Baldrige examiner in 1996, Steve has provided Baldrige training and written and edited Baldrige case studies.
He is also the author of four Baldrige-related books.
His goal for Baldrige.com is to build an online community for sharing information, answering questions, and promoting the Baldrige model as a proven approach to achieving performance excellence.
Imagine a world in which the organizations we buy from, supply, work for, and receive services from are well-run and high-performing. We aim to support that vision by providing:
Information You Need to Build the Organization You Want

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