According to AT&T 2019 Proxy Statement, the median of the annual total compensation of all employees (except the CEO) is $95,814, the annual total compensation of the CEO is $29,118,118, and the CEO pay ratio is 304:1.
What is the justification of such a high ratio? Amazon’s CEO pay ratio is 58:1 in 2018.
Such great justification, the best justification.
Unfortunately, this level of salary disparity also makes them care less about an average salaried employee. It creates this level of disparity in which if you are not in the million dollar club you are just a number.
Randal constantly bragged that customer is #1. But we know that's not the case its always $$$ and by saying customer is #1 it shifted the focus away from employees as a valuable resource.
"Go ahead and keep banging your head against the wall comparing your salary to a CEO's.
See where that gets you."
It's something that has to be done. For years these clowns had the majority of Americans believing that such obscene pay differences were justified by "meritocracy". Of course it was plausible if not true as long as the company was doing well. When executives screw up and companies fail the way AT&T is, it isn't even plausible. And this is good. We need to question this injustice. Of course Stinky doesn't like that but justice demands it. I'm very tired of executives claiming more than a fair split of the benefits we all work to enable. We have been propagandized to believe that markets are as fair as can be and only markets matter. That's nonsense and based on phony economic theories that are cloaked in abstruse mathematics. People have see the inequality as unacceptable if we are going to get our country back from these thieves.
I do not think anyone is comparing their salary against any Exec or CEO. I think they are questioning whether the performance dictates the salary since a lot of people on here have invested in the company and are also stock holders.
In response to: "Go ahead and keep banging your head against the wall comparing your salary to a CEO's. See where that gets you."
Need to get rid of superpacs too. here is prime example number one.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/missouri-attorney-general-says-soros-backed-st-louis-prosecutor-released-all-george-floyd-protesters-from-jail
Ever since Reagan, the republicans have been sticking it to us more than ever. Taxes were higher before Reagan, and so companies reinvested profits in the business. Now, it's a cash grab by the wealthy, who keep financing political campaigns, without limit, thanks to the conservative supreme court ruling in favor of Citizens United.
The top guys need more, they have bigger car and boat payments as well as much larger houses and vacation houses lawn care services pool upkeep assistants mistresses man make up and tanning fees larger bar bills more expensive clothing expensive toys spoiled kids school loans and on and on..
Do you understand now
Us guys at the top have it tough trying to keep the companies alive so some of you can continue to work so I can have all the good top shelf stuff.. I we laid you off, I'm sure you will survive easier than I because you can live cheap, I can not. I might become dispondent and dangerous to my self..
You might be able to eat dog food I cant do that. Please dont talk bad of me because of what you think is an unequal pay scale. I have to run now , my Surf and Turf is waiting
I thought that was the manager to tech ratio.
The king and duke of white privilege and age discrimination reside on the third floor of HQ
When you pay ridiculous sums to execs while you’re laying off workers, you need to ask yourself just who hired those workers that you’ve discovered you no longer need? . What poor business planning created the situation? Those decision makers should be the ones to get the axe. Hmmmmm
If we could just get the institutional investor to question the value of named NEO cash compensation. Nobody’s worth more than about 5 million a year total. Now the stock holding requirements are ok. But with all the benefits they get on top of pay, they all live pretty good life, and have enough to live their lives on forever.
"At Toyota, for example, the chairman draws $1.5 million and the CEO does not even make the $1.1 million required for public disclosure. That's tiny in comparison with the salaries of top U.S. executives. In 2009, the CEOs of Hewlett-Packard, Best Buy, and FedEx made $51.9 million, $49.3 million, and $44.5 million respectively.
It's about the structure of corporate ownership and the failure of the American model to provide adequate corporate governance."
no governance plain and simple. board approves what the ceo does for exchange of stock and dividends and all the ceo's are on each other's board. greed and legal corruption. if you think different, fairly, and don't talk in buzzwords you will never become ceo. meanwhile the politicians get legally bribed by the ceo's and boards and may even join the board after their political career or become a lobbyist for the corporation so they won't change because they have 25,000 dollar refrigerators. but its okay because they go to church on Sunday and confess all their sins and do it all over. this ain't capitalism folks it is fascism. this has got to change.
Pop'n'Fresh needs that to upgrade his guitar collection
Also, comparing the CEO compensations from Randy/Johnny/Mcfreshy to other FAANG CEO's is laughable.
That is their justification. Really?
Page 45
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/732717/000119312520070302/d867502ddef14a.htm
No head banging or comparing here. We all know the role of the CEO and their pay should reflect performance.
Is the company performing? I think not.
Yeah the justification is they do it because they can.
They would rationalize it by telling you that they're uniquely qualified for the job and its market-based pay. Okay Boomer.
Fact is, if you are in "The Club" they work to give you the max compensation possible without raising red flags with their major investors. If you're not in their club, they view you as unwanted baggage and work to either get rid of you or push you as close to quitting (without actually doing so) as they can.
Go ahead and keep banging your head against the wall comparing your salary to a CEO's.
See where that gets you.
Correction for 2020, it's 325:1
The total compensation of our median employee, $98,630 was determined using the same methodology we use for Mr. Stephenson’s Summary Compensation Table compensation, and we included the cost of group health and welfare benefits. The total compensation of the CEO Randall L. Stephenson was $32,032,925, which includes the value of Mr. Stephenson’s health benefits. The final pay ratio calculation is 325:1.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/732717/000119312520070302/d867502ddef14a.htm
300 employees for 12 yrs., 3,600 employees!
Justification? There isn't any. How can one justify Randy or Big Stink earning 300x the average salary given their astoundingly horrible performance?
Unfortunately, this is all a byproduct of decades of GOP leadership and greed. Back in the 70's CEO compensation was 25 - 50X average salary - which one can consider reasonable. But then the 80's and Reagan rolled around and things changed. CEO salaries shot up disproportionately while worker salaries either stagnated or dropped. The 90's just brought more and more discrepancy.
And here we are. A big part of this is that so much executive compensation is based on bonuses (which is tied directly to stock performance) and stock giveaways. That goes a long way toward explaining why there is such massive corporate buyback of stock and why the dividend is considered sacrosanct. The buyback keeps the stock price artificially high, and the dividend goes straight into executive accounts.
I dare anyone to justify any CEO earning 300x average wage, and double-dare anyone to justify that with the people who've led AT&T into this sorry state.
Jeff McElfresh received $8M in total compensation, including $568K in salary, at AT&T in 2019.