CEOs lay off thousands, rake in millions

[frigidmagi]

MSNBC

[quote] 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,â€

[SirNitram]

Capitalism, as Adam Smith defined it, is great. This is getting ridiculous.

[The Minx]

This is what happens when the CEOs get the idea that they're untouchable and will never have to face the consequences of their failures. They whined loud enough to get hundreds of billions in bailouts when they failed before, now they think that they can get anything if they keep at it. This is IMHO just as much a failure of the general culture as of the current incarnation of the system.