And remember, CEO's in the UK and Europe are paid much less than US executives. Despite the stock free fall in the market (which has brutalized retirement plans) corporate leaders are hardly sharing in the pain. Bonuses have come down a bit though offsets in salary increases have made the differences hard to detect. The bankers have (fairly) received the bulk of public anger for excessive pay but it doesn't take long to see too many other unacceptable examples. The Independent:
The typical boss of a FTSE 100 company pocketed a bonus of £502,000 for the financial year to April, a survey by Incomes Data Services reveals today. Though the figure was 29 per cent lower than the year before – the first time in a decade that chief executives' bonuses have fallen – IDS said the size of the pay-outs would still surprise many people.
It also pointed out that at many companies, chief executives were compensated for smaller bonus payments by much higher basic salaries, with the typical boss given a 7.4 per cent rise. As a result, the average FTSE 100 director's total remuneration package last year was just 1.5 per cent lower. Chief executives are still earning just as much as they did in 2006, when the economy was still strong.
