Are bankers paid too Much? And if so, what about technology CEOs?
Big pay days on Wall Street often come under laserlike scrutiny, while Silicon Valley gets a pass on its own compensation excesses.
Why the double standard?
The typical director at a Standard & Poor’s 500 company was paid $251,000 in 2012, and according to Bloomberg News. Eric Schmidt - Google’s CEO - is above that range by over $100 million.
Take the example of Jamie Dimon’s pay for 2013, given the many regulatory travails of his bank, JPMorgan Chase. The bank’s board awarded Mr. Dimon $20 million in pay for 2013, $18.5 million of which was in restricted stock that vests over three years. For one, the outsize pay for Schmidt doesn’t square with Google’s performance. Putting aside the fact that he is not even the chief executive, Google had net income of $12.9 billion last year. JPMorgan was higher at $17.9 billion.
Maybe the bigger question is why is CEO pay so entirely disconnected from company performance?
Full article on the New York Times.
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