About that CEO pay...

americanthinker.com ^ | 5/24/2018 | Jack Hellner

[rktman]

Chief Executive Officers in the United States can expect to earn a very comfortable salary, with average salaries (in the ballpark of $163K).

This is based on 1,006 CEOs in the U.S.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 2,572,000 top executive jobs and the average pay in 2016 was $104,700. CEOs made an average of $183,270 as of May 2017. That is a far cry from any numbers that the media actually reports.

Meanwhile, the average federal employee compensation in the U.S is $123,160, so they make more than the average top executives, and their benefits and pensions dwarf those of the private sector. My guess is that most top executives also don't have a 37.5-hour work week. Why don't Ellison and journalists talk about that?

[rktman]

WTH? Wonder if someone will do a fact check on those numbers. Of course all the press ever whines about is the few CEOs that make gazillions every year in pay and bonuses. Hey, if anyone can grow up to be president, anyone can grow up and be a CEO. Or a Executive Salary Govt employee.

[rockrr]

Figures lie and liars figure

I got a chance to see the outfit that I work for financial statement. The CEO salary was $132,000. But add in the perks and she pulls in nearly $7,000,000.

I’m here to tell ya she ain’t worth it!

[rlmorel]

I don’t give a flying Eff what CEOs make.

Not a bit.

It is class warfare from the get go.

[rlmorel]

That’s a different issue. Whether a CEO is worth it or not is up to the company, and if they have them, shareholders.

And that’s it.

[rktman]

LOL! Up close or from afar. Few are worth it. Just another chapter in the book of “Life Ain’t Fair”.

[CodeToad]

As an executive I can say my pay was never even twice anyone else’s. I’d say the average VP/C-level makes under $200k with maybe a $50k bonus. Some in the financial sectors in NYC can make $400-700, but on average, execs don’t make the money the job is worth. It’s far too much a hassle. Some Fortune 100 companies pay their execs good money, but most execs don’t.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Short answer: Because anyone who has ever had a negative work experience (layoff, plant moved to Mexico, benefit cuts, not promoted, etc.) blames the CEO. Eventually the pool of repressed anger and bitterness provides a fertile recruiting ground for Leftist Demagogues.

[Mouton]

My feeling has always been if your name is on the building, you get to take home whatever you want.

[The Pack Knight]

WTH? Wonder if someone will do a fact check on those numbers.

He has links to the sources. The amount for average top executive pay comes straight from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics Survey.

The amount for average federal employee compensation comes from the US Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis. What he doesn't make clear (but his source, Chris Edwards at the CATO Institute does) is that it is average total compensation, not salary. The average salary is $88,809.

Also, the executive number is a median, while the federal employee number appears to be a mean. I am not sure how big a difference that makes, but it is not a straight comparison. Between this and the difference between salary and total comp, this really is an apples-to-oranges comparison.

That said, most top executives probably do not have as lucrative benefits as most federal employees. Also, even though many top executives of small businesses are also owners of those businesses, most of the ones I know don't really pay themselves dividends or distributions, but pay themselves in salary and bonuses for tax purposes. So it is possible that their total compensation is not much more than their salaries.

So I think there are a lot of questions you can ask about the accuracy of this article. If you are trying to say that the average federal employees make a larger salary than the average top executive, that is not true based on the numbers this author cites. Their total compensation could be higher, but the cited sources just don't give us the data to say so.

Having said that, I do think we can say with confidence that, based on the government's numbers, the average federal employee receives similar, if not more, total compensation than the average top executive in the private sector, and that is a profound enough point, though maybe not as easy to put into a soundbite.

[TBP]

What right does anyone have to have more than the self-anointed have?

[SamAdams76]

It really does not concern me what CEOs of a private sector company make but I can tell you that the "average salaries" of CEOs stated in this article do not nearly reflect the total compensation package of a CEO.

I'm a mid-level executive at my company and I have potential to make twice my "base salary" in bonuses on average. The higher level executives have potential to make several times their salary in bonus with our CEO probably making 10x his salary in bonus.

Then you have other perks such as car allowances, living expenses, additional kickers to your retirement savings, expense accounts, and so forth.

Point is, a CEO with a salary of $150K may make well over $1m when all is said and done.

[rb22982]

Yes, the media only looks at the top 500 ceos pay rather than the average. It’s like saying all baseball players are millionaires, ignoring minor league players and college that make little or nothing.

[Sam Gamgee]

Looks like bullshit to me. There is no way top CEOS of public companies only make $180,000. They make in the $10 - 20 million range and sometimes leave their contract exercising stock options netting them in the $100 million range.

[Sam Gamgee]

I am losing some of my previous regard for American Thinker. This article is intellectually dishonest. Are they talking about small companies or the 1000s of public traded companies. Compensation, and let’s not confuse the issue by talking only about stated salary, is easily in the 10 million range or higher for public companies.

[Sam Gamgee]

But the article is talking about CEOs, not executive. For instance Disney CEO make 36 million last year.

[rktman]

I went to diznee once. After we left I wish I made that much.

[The Pack Knight]

He addresses that. The average CEO salary was $183,270 in 2017, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Most of the many tens of thousands of CEOs in the country don’t make what Bob Iger makes, just like most of the actors in this country don’t make what Tom Cruise makes.

[The Pack Knight]

Compensation, and let’s not confuse the issue by talking only about stated salary, is easily in the 10 million range or higher for public companies.

Which public companies? The S&P 500, sure. Those are exceptionally large and valuable "large cap" companies. Are you saying the salary for the CEOs of the 7,000 other exchange-listed companies is in the $10 million range? How about companies trading over the counter, do those count?

And what is intellectually dishonest about discussing CEOs of small companies along with the CEOs of large publicly traded companies? Did Keith Ellison say he only wanted to regulate the salaries of CEOs of large companies?

[Sam Gamgee]

If they are listed on exchanges I highly doubt they are paid a measly $180,000. I definitely do not want to regulate anything, just concerned as a shareholder of public companies how much money the parasitical executive is sucking out of earnings.