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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 2010)
September 15,2010 £l?e 'jJùrtlanÒ (Observer - O pinion Page 17 New Prices Effective May 1,2010 Martin Cleaning Service Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services Minimum Service CHG $45.00 A small distance/travel charge may be applied CARPET CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 Each Area Pre-Spray Traffic Areas (Includes: I sm all H allw ay) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $40.00 Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area (Hallway Extra) Stairs (12-16 stairs - Pfz7/z O ther Services)-. $25.00 I MMMM V W SH W R■ ■ ■ M N N «S Planet CEO vs. Planet Worker Closing the distance between two worlds gains appears to be petering out, it has cre ated a record stash o f cash for big corpora tions. According to a new report by the Institute by C huck C ollins for Policy Studies that I co-authored, a bunch Rem em ber the Great Recession? o f that cash is going to a handful o f CEOs. For m ost A m ericans, it's an unforgettable And the CEOs who have slashed the most nightm are that lives on. But for the ch ief jobs have actually gotten bigger paychecks executive officers o f som e o f our nation's th a n C E O s w h o h a v e re ta in e d th e ir biggest com panies, it's a distant memory. workforces. These CEOs live on Planet Platinum, where CEOs at the 50 firms that have fired the profits and paychecks are in a parallel uni m ost w orkers since the onset o f the econom ic verse. crisis in 2008 paid them selves nearly $12 In 2009, the paychecks o f CEOs at the m illion on average in 2009. This is 42 percent biggest U.S. corporations averaged 263 times higher than the average CEO pay at the 500 the com pensation o f U.S. workers. largest com panies. Here on M ain Street, Planet Earth, m any For exam ple, Fred Hassan, CEO o f drug Am ericans are living with the reality o f in com pany Schering-Plough, took home $49.6 creased econom ic insecurity, eroding sav m illion in 2009, even as the com pany laid o ff ings, and anxiety about their jobs. In the last 16,000 em ployees in a m erger with Merck. two years, as a result o f the econom ic m elt Hassan's one-year com pensation is equal to down, over 8 m illion jobs were elim inated. the benefits that a total o f 3,131 average M any social observers believe the "long unem ployed A m ericans would receive over shadow" o f this recession will be felt for a the course o f an entire year. generation, with persistent high unem ploy On Planet Platinum , com panies enjoy all ment changing the life course o f today's young the benefits o f doing business in the United adults. States without having to pay for them. Thanks On Planet Platinum , corporate profits and to tax dodges and overseas tax havens, sev CEO pay have bounced back. U nfortunately, eral com panies pay their CEOs more than this isn't translating into new jobs. In fact, they pay in total federal corporate income m any com panies are pursuing a business taxes. For example, Occidental Petroleum paid strategy o f boosting profits while shedding its CEO Ray Irani $31.4 m illion in com pensa w orkers at a shocking pace. W hile the ben tion in 2009. This was double the $ 18 m illion efits o f this strategy in term s o f productivity it paid in corporate incom e taxes that same year. Com panies like O ccidental benefit from o u r rem ark ab le in fra stru c tu re o f roads, bridges, and technology. They're protected by our m ilitary, policing, and judicial system s. But they pay only a fraction o f the taxes that people on Main Street, Planet Earth pay because o f tax loop holes and subsidies. Efforts to reform runaw ay executive com pensation have been slow in coming. Thanks to the recently passed financial reform legis lation, shareholders will now have a "say on pay" But we still have a long way to go to close the distance betw een the two planets where CEOs and ordinary w orkers live. Congress should enact several proposals that have trem endous public support. One w ould cap CEO pay at com panies that receive governm ent bailouts at the level o f the U.S. president's salary o f $400,000 per year. A nother w ould limit a corporation's ability to deduct excessive CEO pay as a business expense when it exceeds 25 tim es the average w orker at a com pany. Realigning the interests o f CEOs with their em ployees and the rest o f our country would be good for the econom y and national morale. At a tim e when we should be pulling together to strengthen our shared econom ic futures, no one should live on another planet. Chuck Collins is senior scholar at the Institute f o r P olicy Studies. 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