Posted on 08/30/2007 3:25:41 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
DELHI: Top private-equity and hedge fund managers made more in 10 minutes than average-paid US workers earned all of last year, according to a new study from two research groups.
The 20 highest-paid fund managers made an average of $657.5 million, or 22,255 times the US average annual salary of $29,500, said the study, released on Wednesday by Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy. The study cited data from the US Labor Department and Forbes magazine.
“The fact that these pay levels for fund managers are so out-of-sight is going to drive up pay at publicly traded companies,” said Sarah Anderson, director of the global economy program at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies and a co-author of the study. “There are people out there with a straight face claiming that public company executives are underpaid.”
The private equity boom in the past year has pushed the pay ceiling for fund managers “further into the economic stratosphere,” the study said. Chief executive officers at large US corporations averaged $10.8 million in pay last year, the study said, citing a survey. Their weekly pay of $2,07,700 was about seven times the average worker’s annual salary.
The study’s authors said top hedgefund managers are making more in a fraction of an hour than a typical worker makes in a year. The hedge-fund chiefs average $12.6 million a week, or $2,10,700 an hour based on a 60-hour week. That’s $35,100 every 10 minutes, compared with $29,500 a year for the average worker.
The Institute for Policy Studies is a liberal non-profit research group that promotes alternatives to the ‘corporate-driven approach to globalisation.’ United for a Fair Economy, based in Boston, “raises awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy” and corrupts democracy, according to its website. In 2006, the 20 highestpaid fund managers also made 3,315 times the average pay for the top 20 officials in the US government’s executive branch, including the president, the study said.
Hedge-fund compensation is “feebased and directly attributable to a firm’s assets under management and performance,” John G Gaine, president of the Managed Funds Association, the Washington-based lobbying group for hedge funds, said in an e-mailed statement.
Hedge funds are mostly private and unregulated pools of capital where managers can buy or sell any assets, participating substantially in the profits of the money invested.
Is this why my mutual fund fees are so high?
>> The 20 highest-paid fund managers made an average of $657.5 million
I’m not sure I believe that number. Wonder where they got their data.
Ah, here we go: http://www.alphamagazine.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=1328498&PositionID=25424
Includes the likes of T. Boone Pickens and George Soros.
So? They will never know the pleasure of finding a good deal on a can of good generic-brand refried beans at Kroger, nor the immense relief I get when I take a leak on their lawn when passing by (not to mention passing gas). Poor souls. To each his own.
Wonder how much top movie stars earn over minimum wage.
Is this supposed to rile us up so that we can scream for more taxes on the rich (those making over $80,000 per year)?
The average US salary is under $30,000?
Don’t quibble when the soak the rich crowd is on a roll.
More taxes on the rich is not the answer to this problem
Investors need to wise up. When these managers pay themselves these salaries, the investors lose. That money would be better served toward investor earnings.
I cringe when I hear those say “its good that these people make this kind of money”. They are about as dumb as a sociaist wanting to tax the earnings.
Investors should wise up...find funds that pay investors, not managers
I totally agree that investors should be wise in their funds choices and watch the expenses of those funds. However, I guarantee you that this headline is not intended for that purpose.
These are hedge funds.
So if the fund loses money, do they pay in?
Who gives a sh*t how much they make? I hope they make double next year, and the year after that.
Sorry got on a roll answering another post!
No problem. These guys have been on a roll the last few years returning 10%+ to their investors. Wait til the ugliness starts later this year. They’ll be lucky to make $10 mil.
I’d be willing to bet none of those guys caught 41 bream on his lunch break today.
I did.
Hey, if a million people are willing to pay you $600 to manage their money, why shouldn’t you take 600 million to do it?
Those numbers are required to be made available to stockholders by law. They probably got them from those fund’s prospectus.
Typical hedge funds take 20% of the profits and a 2% management fee.
And typical hedge funds are invested in by fairly sophisticated folks. If they are willing to pay such fees for the return they get, that’s the market. This whole article just seems to want to incite income envy.
All the while, they get to play Monopoly with other people’s money...and whether the fund is a winner or loser, they win!
Plus they are better paid than congress, who plays Monopoly with our lives.
Envy would be the normal reaction, except those numbers are truly too large to easily wrap your mind around.
Here’s the question we should all be asking: what are the job requirements to be a fund manager?
:^)
Ivy League degree/MBA/law. Couple of years at an investment bank. Knowledge of two or more languages doesn’t hurt.
Thanks. I’ll get right on it.
These are very bright guys. The new Masters of the Universe. In another decade they’ll be another crop of very bright guys doing something else and they’ll be the Masters of the Universe.
"Average salary" tells very little - it's badly by influenced by very young and older people who are either making minimum wage, or cashing out comfortably before retirement.
Median income is what really matters; that reflects "the masses" of people, largely folks in mid-life who need money much more immediately.
I'll give you credit, you know your history.
I don't where they got that number from.
In 2006, the median annual household income according to the US Census Bureau was determined to be $48,201.
http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032007/hhinc/new04_001.htm
If the majority of wives work, that lowers the median annual individual income even further.
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