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Executive Salary - The change is due When looking at the everyday reality of jobs, markets, customer service and meeting the production that keeps a nation moving, How does anyone justify a "Hired" Executive, making Millions upon 10's of Millions, and the people who perform, are paid so lowly. As society learn more and more how to over-come the fear of thinking, the more aware people become, to see,and to recognize what they previously feared thinking about, or denied to consider, or felt it was useless to ponder, what they have long blinded themselves to see, and feared to think about. Today, exposure and internet information is giving people more to think about, and as people now learn to get beyond brevity, to think of the details, then society become more aware, and think more deeply about the matters within life and how it affects and what effects things have on how communities, cities and people in general live. The coming generation will be far more astute about such matters, and far more freer in their thinking to address such matters. Young people are forced to live with more moderate concepts, and now understand better how to avoid the traps of opulence and opt for function and quality over, quantity and exaggerated excesses. As the new age of young people mature, they will be far more astute investors, than the people of the past. who forked over their money with blind faith in men in suits. The Youth of today, see the reality of the Madoff's, the Stanfords, and the collusive mentality that dominates banking, as well as they are learning to be more aware and to learn to avoid the cycle of stock market over trading, which is no more than betting on the gamble of the trade, and the frequency of trade, they will learn to be more focused to paying attention to the actual products produced by the companies being traded, and how that product serves the consumer market. It's taken many years to evolve to rational processes of change, which must be led by regulatory governance, that has to be vigilante in monitoring the activities, Global money, now mandates many checks within the system, after the loss of 2008, but there are yet, more to come, because the system was far too entrenched in corrupt activity, to wipe it out in the first wave of regulatory reforms, it will take more, but it may take a further crash, to bring that awareness to the focal point, to go deeper and more intricate with regulatory controls. When billionaires began to think in terms of charity, to create social program for their gained wealth, it also brings the dynamic of reform within the mentality, which will 'trickle in", and alter the disposition of the current greed modeling. It's taken hundreds of years, to reach this point, but the phase of change is already underway. Early industry may have grown because the people who ran them, actually created and/or owned the industry, unfortunately, even in earlier times, as in present times, the value of the worker, who actually gets the job done, has always been the lowest factor within almost every kind of industry. but today, it has become an absurdity, that results to crash many companies, and run cities, communities, and individuals lives, all for the greed and malice of a few. Mankind may well learn to not exalt mankind so high in industry, as the result continues to show, they wield power to destroy nations, by their acts of self interest. As they continue to make spike and crash, with eventual downfall upon downfall, while they erode the quality of products and services, in every commodity which exist. they take down cities, and nations, in their cycle of greed, unaware of their folly, nor do they have concern about their malice and mischief. But "a world becoming a more wise world", is destined to become wise enough to force change. -The future may well bring "Salary Caps" to the Executive Suites,and stripped down accessory compensations. This will probably usher in a time when quality goes up, rather than going down. Once Executive are put in check. they won't be allowed nor will it be beneficial to them, to erode product quality and wipe out services, due to the desire for exaggerated compensation figures being paid to executives, along with their collusive efforts, of trying to make their stocks pay better, by producing cheaper and diluting markets with poor quality products. There may be a big shift in how Executive Compensation is considered, when the new age of economic take hold and spread across the globe. It make take wise investors, to call for caps on compensation and fixed salary, and diminish stock options as perks for the executives. Many are becoming wise, that companies are not ran in the ground by the worker, but by the executives, who make bad decisions, and pay themselves win loose or draw, excessive compensation. They cut quality and raise their salary, they cut services, and raise their salary, they dilute the company value by awarding themselves millions upon millions of shares of stock. many sell out corporations, as a means to cash out, and run in search for another windfall of being bought in to another company, they work for a few years and sell it out, and cash in against. The looser is always the general population and the workers, the customers, and the investors. maybe a time may come when the common person and worker becomes wise, and the investors open their eyes, and the consumer, demand quality for their dollars. The days of the High Paid Executives is due to meet its change, as well as the excessive trading and bloating of commodities, that continue to correct and wipe out the average investor, of everything the day traders did not already strip away. Smart companies, will manage their own stocks, "In-house", and strip away the volatility of the open markets, the funds they collect will go directly into the company, as assets and capital support for stability and growth. The days of the paper shuffle games, may find it has outlived it's usefulness, and has become no more than a corrupt swindle game, played out on a global playing field. Nations have lost, individuals have lost, retirement saving have been wiped out, and companies ran in the ground by traders, who have no vested interest in the companies they crash, or rob, and use as gambit profit grabs. Canada showed how well it works, not to play the open markets, when it managed its real-estate markets by no joining in the international pool of inflate and grab the money, by deception rate playing games. which resulted to allow the value to be stripped from property, and only over inflated paper left as a result, which resulted into many empty properties littering the landscape. _____________________________________________________________ America's Most Dangerous Jobs Fisherman Courtesy of Wayne Magwood Fatality Rate: 200 per 100,000 Median Wages: $23,600 The most perilous job in the U.S. is held by those who fish the waters in cold-weather states. Freezing water and icy boat decks can lead to horrific accidents, and storms can swamp small fishing vessels, sometimes claiming entire crews. Compounding the danger is catch rules: By limiting fishing seasons, fisheries management creates a race to fish, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. That forces fishermen out in dangerous weather and keeps exhausted crews on the water. In Alaska, the season for halibut and crab has been, at times, reduced to just three days. Even warm-water fishers face hazards. Wayne Magwood has shrimped the waters off South Carolina for 40 years and says the biggest danger is heavy machinery, such as the power winches and cables that haul nets and other equipment. "My dad taught me to keep my shirt tucked in," says Magwood. "Your clothes can get tangled up and you can get pulled overboard. One guy broke his neck recently." Magwood also lost a friend when the crewman was answering nature's call and a sudden roll pitched him into the water. Logger Courtesy of Roger Smith Fatality Rate: 61.8 per 100,000 Median Wages: $34,440 Logging takes an annual toll like few other occupations. The biggest hazard, according to Roger Smith of RL Logging in Olympia, Wash., comes from logging mountain slopes. "You're working steep terrain with 70-degree, 80-degree grades with rocks and sliding logs," he says. About half the time, he's taking down 60- to 70-year-old trees with trunk diameters of 30 inches or more. If not felled correctly, these can go crashing down slopes, rolling over anyone in their paths. "A lot of the time, what gets cutters is if they don't see something," Smith says. "Like trees growing together or snags." The old forest canopies often have those snags, which are big dead branches that break off and can fall erratically when the tree comes down. Loggers call them "widow makers." Even after the trees are cut, the job of loading them can be tough. "Somebody just got killed here last Thursday," he says. "He was running a harvester and one of the teeth of the chain broke off and went right through the bulletproof glass window of his cab." Airplane Pilots Courtesy of Heidi Ruess Fatality Rate: 57.1 per 100,000 Median Wages: $106,240 When former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens died in a small plane accident recently, it underscored the hazards Alaskan bush pilots face. That crash followed the script of many Alaskan accidents, where the most common cause of fatalities is "flying into terrain, under speed," according to the BLS. Heidi Ruess, an Anchorage-based bush pilot with 40 years experience, says, "You can't compare Alaskan flying with the rest of the country." Volatile Alaskan weather and vertical topography can cause pilots to lose visibility in fog and fly into steep mountainsides. She used to take tourists, hunters and fishermen out to remote locations until she flipped her Cessna 185. She had only three passengers -- the plane can take five -- but she was still over-loaded because, in addition to gear, they had packed up four or five caribou. "We don't have roads [in Alaska] and you can't drive in to pick up the gear and the game," she says. She also flipped a float plane a few years before as she landed to pick up duck hunters. She tried to use mud to brake but it was frozen and the plane hit a big ditch and sent her tumbling. After that, she concentrated on teaching. She cautions her students that the two biggest reasons for flying accidents are physical conditions, which pilots can rarely do much about, and judgment, which they can. Farmers and Ranchers Courtesy of John Gilbert Fatality Rate: 35.8 per 100,000 Median Wages: $32,350 Both farmers and ranchers deal with many hazardous conditions in their workplace. In many cases, accidents result when workers get fatigued or hurry to complete a job. "When you're tired, you may take shortcuts you shouldn't," says John Gilbert, who, along with his four brothers and eldest , runs a big dairy and pork farm near Iowa Falls, Iowa. "Raising and harvested crops, you have short windows to get things done in the spring and fall. That leads to a lot of rushing around." Many agricultural workers die one of three ways: being pinned in overturned tractors, truck collisions and animal incidents. One of the biggest hazards for farmers around Gilbert's home ground is moving around augers that transfer grain from trucks or bins to silos. "They're tall enough to get tangled in overhead power lines," says Gilbert. "Everybody knows about the hazard and is cautioned about it, but accidents happen anyway." Almost as dangerous is taking to the roads on slow moving tractors or combines. Drivers inexperienced in rural travel may confuse the hazard lights and directional signals and think the farmer is turning left instead of right. That leads to farmers sometimes turning directly into the path of an oncoming car or truck. Gilbert himself has been cautious, and lucky, never sustaining a disabling injury. And he does not consider farming a job: "It's a way of life," he says. Roofers Courtesy of Kevin Coleman Fatality Rate: 34.7 per 100,000 Median Wages: $33,970 Height increases danger -- and roofing is an occupation where elevation is part of the job description. Kevin Coleman has been roofing safely for 24 years, since age 18. He works commercial buildings with mostly flat roofs, so the possibility of falling is lower. Although he has worked as high as a 70-story building in downtown Chicago. One particular hazard is hot tar. The roofers work with big buckets of the stuff heated to as much as 525 degrees. "I got hurt only once," says Coleman. "A guy's shirt with a lighter in the pocket fell into the tar and exploded. My face was covered." He escaped with only a few scars. Safety has increased for roofers. "When I started, it was 'Get up on the roof and go,'" he says. "Now you take OSHA safety courses and there's more safety equipment, too." Roofers can fall even off flat roofs with no wall height, so one innovation was to set up a line of flags, six feet from the roof's edge, like an outfield warning track. There's also more protection, such as restraints and nets, to catch workers when they do fall. But the prime reason for a steady drop-off of injuries and fatalities is better training, according to Coleman. Ironworkers Fatality Rate: 30.3 per 100,000 Median Wages: $44,500 The men and women who build the skyscrapers and bridges of modern America have always been held in awe by the general public. Images of them walking a four-inch steel beam hanging 500-feet above the street or sliding down an I-beam illustrate the conditions that would have lesser workers curling into a fetal position and crying for their mommies. Steve Rank helped build downtown Houston in the 1980s and now works to improve ironworker safety via negotiated rule-making with OSHA. One thing that has changed is the number of anchor bolts set in concrete has doubled. These bolts help hold beams steady as they go up. In the past, many bolts failed. "The structure would fall like a house of cards," Rank says. Site preparation is also a major issue. "Before, it would look like a scud missile hit, everything underwater in mud," Rank explains. "We'd be offloading steel and the truck wheels would sink, shifting the beams and crushing people." Rank is still negotiating with OSHA to get better rules for reinforced-concrete buildings. These can be 20-story high constructions of poured concrete with steel rebar embedded in them. Lax regulations governing them has contributed to more than 100 ironworker fatalities over the past few years, according to Rank. "We want to do the same thing for reinforced concrete we did with structural steel to make the job site safer," he says. Sanitation Worker Timothy A. Clary/ Fatality Rate: 25.2 per 100,000 Median Wages: $32,070 Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis Tenn., when he came to support black sanitation workers who were striking against unequal treatment. Ironically, 40 years later, that conflict continues to have an impact on the health and safety of Memphis sanitation workers. According to Warren Cole, the president of the union local, black workers were frozen out of the city pension plan years ago, leaving them only social security. Many have had to keep working at this demanding job much longer because they can't afford to retire. "We lost one of our workers last week," said Cole. "Emmite Johnson had finished running his route. Memphis has been averaging about 100 degrees with high humidity, and he fell waiting for a bus. He was 70 years old." Summer may be tough on sanitation workers, but they also endure hazardous wastes all year long. Cole said a new peril is from portable meth labs, which are set up in vans or automobiles. Explosive bi-products are discarded in garbage bins or alongside roads, a lethal danger to sanitation workers. There's also the heavy equipment, like compactors, that can grab and crush workers if they're not careful. Industrial Machinist Fatality Rate: 18.5 per 100,000 Median Wages: $39,600 One of the biggest hazards of working with industrial machinery is handling the heavy weights. Machines can buck or shift, easily crushing a fragile human being. Machinery in use in unforgiving. Loose clothing or long hair can be caught by chains or gears and mangle workers before the equipment can be brought to a stop. Fortunately, better safety equipment and more comprehensive training has made working with machinery safer, according to David Merrifield, a Missouri-based safety consultant. "There are better standards for safety and training," he says. "A well-trained operator can avoid accidents and make the accidents that do happen less severe." Truckers and Drivers/Sales Workers Courtesy of Mark Sutherland Fatality Rate: 18.3 per 100,000 Median Wages: $37,730 Mark Sutherland is a long-haul trucker with a track record of 2 million miles without an accident. But not all drivers can make that boast. More truckers and sales delivery men die on the job than any of the other top 10 occupations due to a moderately high fatality rate and a large number of workers. Vigilance is vital but that can be hard to maintain, especially with truckers under pressure to produce. Government deregulation, according to Sutherland, has increased competition and squeezed profit margins. Some drivers and companies cut corners. "They do what it takes," says Sutherland, "and some of the terrible accidents you see are the result." For truckers pushing the limits, speeding and driving too long without proper rest take a toll. Things happen quickly when a big rig is rolling down the road at 75 miles per hour and the driver's attention has wandered after 10 hours with only a short break or two. "You have to constantly pay attention," says Sutherland. "You can't have enough eyes. You have to adjust to conditions." His pet peeve is the drivers who come to a dead stop at construction zones for no reason. That, fog, ice and snow are the most hazardous physical conditions that truckers face. Construction Laborer Fatality Rate: 18.3 per 100,000 Median Wages: $29,150 Building sites contain many of the hazardous conditions present in many of the most dangerous jobs. Workers are outdoors in all sorts of weather conditions, often at great heights and exposed to heavy materials and machinery. A laborer was killed at McCarren Airport in Las Vegas early in 2009 when an earth-moving shovel ran over him. Later in the year, a Michigan laborer died when a diesel tank exploded. In New Jersey a worker was killed after his clothing entangled in a rotating machine drilling pipe. Safety has sometimes been an afterthought on some construction jobs, but government regulations and heightened awareness by companies and the workers themselves have helped to steadily pare down casualties. |
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By Roland Jones When Hewlett-Packard’s Chief Executive Mark Hurd resigned last month he received something few regular workers see when they quit their jobs under a cloud: A massive payout. Turns out Hurd is far from the only top executive to be rewarded with a rich package despite a management performance that could be considered less than optimal — especially by rank-and-file workers. A new report concludes that chief executives of the 50 firms that have laid off the most workers since the onset of the economic crisis in 2008 took home 42 percent more pay in 2009 than their peers at other large U.S. companies. The report, from the Institute of Policy Studies, found that the 50 layoff leaders received $12 million on average in 2009, compared with an average compensation of $8.5 million for chief executives of companies in Standard & Poor's 500. Each of the 50 companies examined in the report laid off at least 3,000 workers between November 2008 and April 2010. “Our findings illustrate the great unfairness of the Great Recession,” said Sarah Anderson, lead author of the study, “CEO Pay and the Great Recession,” the latest in a series of annual “Executive Excess” reports published by the institute, a progressive think tank. “CEOs are squeezing workers to boost short-term profits and fatten their own paychecks.” Those CEOs include HP’s Hurd, who slashed 6,400 jobs in 2009 — a year when his compensation amounted to $24.2 million. Newsweek: When CEOs behave badly Hurd made headlines last month when he suddenly resigned after an investigation into a sexual harassment claim against him found he had falsified expense reports related to meetings with a female contractor. Despite the findings, he walked away with a severance package that reportedly could be worth more than $40 million. However, one worrying aspect of the report is the finding that five of the 50 top layoff leaders received taxpayer-funded bailouts. American Express, for example, gave CEO Kenneth Chenault $16.8 million in 2009, including a $5 million cash bonus. American Express has laid off 4,000 employees since receiving $3.4 billion in taxpayer bailout funds, the report said. “Questions should be asked of the boards of these sorts of companies,” Ward said. “A company’s board has a great deal of responsibility for overseeing CEO compensation.” These days there is a movement toward rewarding corporate executives with “restricted” company stock instead that has more downside risk because it behaves like regular shares. Employees generally may not sell restricted stock until a certain amount of time passes or a financial target has been met, and they may have to forfeit their shares if they leave a company before a certain period. “So there’s less incentive for a company executive to engage in actions in the short term that simply boost a company’s stock price,” Ward said. “The executive’s incentives are more aligned with those of the long-term individual shareholder.”
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Phase one... and certainly there is more to come. Its quite interesting the people who work in and around corporate function at the administrative level, seem to have so little to say about these trends, that are over-due for this change, and surely there are more to come. It's time we see "caps", in all areas of executive compensation. It's time we acknowledge, these people are "employees" hired to do a job, not hired to be given the company, nor to be paid at rates that insult the workers, who actually make the function of revenue generation possible. the Age of a nation, awakens, and realize they made poor mistake to hail these 'employees so high', and find company after company crashed and pushed into decline. America people made to be un-employed, while the profits which belong to the company end up in the executive employee's pockets. the psyche of executive compensation showed how absurd it is, even in the city of Bell, and its neighbor, when the city administrators paid themselves, as if the city was their person business enterprise, while the citizens made 10 or more times, less on an average. Yes, thanks for the computer and the awareness of the few who are learning to see more clearly, and to take aim to address this madness.
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