Posted on 01/21/2015 6:16:37 AM PST by Citizen Zed
Aetna raised employees' wages to a base of $16 per hour because paying them less was not fair, Mark Bertolini, CEO and chairman of Aetna told CNBC on Wednesday.
"Here we are a Fortune 50 company and we're about to put these people into poverty and I just didn't think it was fair," he said during a "Squawk Box" interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Aetna first made the announcement last week during the JPMorgan Health Care Conference. The wage and benefit hikes will impact about 5,700 workers who were making between $13 and $14 per hour.
Many of those workers were single mothers who had to rely on food stamps and Medicaid because they could not afford Aetna's health care plans, Bertolini said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mob.cnbc.com ...
Why not $160 an hour?
And as of Jan 21st he’s cutting his compensation to no more than the equivalent of $20.00/hr. Right? No? Weird huh.
Why not $100 an hour, an all expense paid trip to Dineyland, complete healthcare package with an IRA plan thrown in so we can pay $20 for a Happy Meal?
This is Aetna trying to be the last insurance company standing after obamacare destroys the insurance industry.
What do you mean "put them into poverty"? Where were they before you hired them?
You've said more than you realize Mr. CEO. The sad truth is it pays more to be on government subsistence than it does to work for a living.
After overhead and profit are added the now middle class would become the new poor.
A socialization of risk/irresponsibility socialist has a plan? Go figure. Let’s charge more for our scam BUMP!
Huh???? By giving them a job and offering them the opportunity to EARN a living, aren't you in fact lifting them OUT of poverty? How much more would they be earning if they had no job at ALL?
And this birdbrain is a CEO????
Pay everyone at the company the same rate he is getting.....
Aetna Chairman and CEO Mark T. Bertolini’s compensation last year was less than one-fourth the pay package he received in 2012, according to documents filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bertolini was compensated $8.26 million last year, down from $36.36 million in 2012.
His 2013 compensation includes $996,169 salary, $1.38 million in non-equity incentive pay, $283,385 in “other compensation,” $4.52 million in value realized on exercising options and $1.08 million in value realized on stock vested.
Additionally, Bertolini received stock-and-option awards valued at $28 million when they were distributed last year, which will provide value in the future and depend on the company’s performance.
And that person is a CEO. He is a stupid and ignorant individual.
Many CEOs are figureheads. Most of them don’t deserve their station.
Because that amount is stupid. If Aetna wants to raise employee wages then why criticize them for it?
That’s his business. If he, as CEO, wants to pay each worker some guaranteed minimum salary — no matter where they live — he can do it. Time will tell whether its smart (like Henry Ford) or stupid.
Why? The raise impacts 5700 of the 48000 employees Aetna has. The total amount of the increases in salary is probably less than the $35 million he made in salary and bonuses for 2012. It's not going to impact the company's bottom line by any appreciable amount, and may well cut down on employee turnover. It's a smart business decision.
Aetna is making a huge amount of money off Obamacare. At the expense of its customers, of course. Aetna doesn’t need to save on wage expense. That’s why its customers exist - to maintain Aetna employees in the lifestyles to which they have become accustomed.
‘Exactly
Please remember this company’s chief exec flew down to meet Obola numerous times in 2009 to collude in creating Obamacare which has driven AE stock value significantly higher.
They also made sure to build in a guarantee that taxpayers would cover any ACA losses beyond 15%.
A working wage is a noble idea, but wage earning purchasing power is relevant to inflation / dollar’s value / cost of living rising due to gov’t tax and regulation burdens.
Fair is paying the employee commensurate with the values of his/her production.
Paying more than the value of those efforts is harmful to the company and unsustainable unless other employees are paid less than the value of their work.
So paying an employee more than the value of their work is unfair to other workers or corporate suicide.
So the board of directors or the stockholders should demand of Mr. Bertolini an explanation of this pay raise for the company’s low wage workers. Were these employees paid less than their worth in the past (unlikely) or are they being paid more than their worth now (more likely).
Regardless it is not the typical responsibility of a CEO to determine the wages of the lowest level employees. The man is stepping out of his role which is something very dangerous for a manager to do.
Bookmark this to reference in the thread that comes after Aetna announces massive layoffs and restructuring.
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