Free Republic

Harriet Harman was yesterday slapped down by national statisticians over her claims that women are paid a fifth less than men. The Women and Equality Minister was told she must no longer use a single figure to describe the complex differences in the earnings of men and women. Instead she will have to give three measures - among them one which shows that far from earning less than men, women in part-time jobs are actually paid more on average than their male counterparts.

Sen. Chris Dodd produced language that allowed Feinberg to cut salariesBy VICTORIA MCGRANE 10/23/09 4:37 PM EDT Remember all the heat Sen. Chris Dodd took earlier this year over writing the loophole in the stimulus that let AIG executives collect $165 million in bonuses? But that same provision had another key section – the authority for a White House pay czar to slash top executive pay at seven financial firms that still hold billions in taxpayer bailout funds. So what Dodd’s legislation gave away in the form of bonuses, it has taken back with special pay master Kenneth Feinberg’s power...

Dispatch from the Department of Pot-Meet-Kettle . . . Katie Couric has demanded "humility" from Wall Streeters making seven-figure incomes. This from a woman pulling down . . . eight figures [an estimated $15 million/year] from CBS while cementing the Evening News' caboose status. Couric made her hypocritical plea in her "Notebook" segment yesterday, commenting on Pres. Obama's pay czar's plan to cut compensation for employees of financial firms that have received bail-out bucks [emphasis added]:

TARP Head: Executive Pay Cuts Are ‘Real’ Official confirms Obama administration will slash pay at bailed-out firms WASHINGTON - The chairman of the panel that oversees the $700 billion federal bailout fund said Thursday the Obama administration is insisting on slashing the salaries of executives of companies that took money from the government. Appearing on a nationally broadcast interview, Elizabeth Warren said reports of pending slashes in executive salaries are "real." Asked on CBS's "The Early Show" whether reports of the rollback amounted to a public relations stunt, Warren, who heads the Targeted Asset Relief Program's oversight committee, replied, "It's...

America's freedom is rapidly vanishing. Under the guise of "fairness" and "equality," and powered by the tactics of Saul Alinsky/Chicago-style class warfare, class envy, and thuggery, gullible Americans are having their paychecks and freedom confiscated while they whistle past the graveyard with dreams of "hope and change" floating in their heads. Aspiring fascist thug dictator, Barack Obama, is coming after the paychecks of formerly free American citizens, and it's chilling.

Okay -- So The Feds are going to cut the salaries of Wall Street Executives that receive TARP money by 90%presumabley until the companies pay back the TARP funds and/or become profitable! Great. I have no problem with that, other than the unintended consquence of chasing away your top talent. Be that as it may, the government pays the piper, the government calls the tune. Ah, but shouldn't that principle should be equally applied to Congress?!! Congress told us that the $750 billion stimulus package was absolutely necessary to create jobs and that unemployment would reach no higher than 8%....

Responding to the growing furor over the paychecks of executives at companies that received billions of dollars in the government’s financial rescue, the Obama administration will order the companies that received the most aid to deeply slash the compensation to their highest paid executives, an official involved in the decision said on Wednesday.

"In the early '70s, breaking out of the domestic cocoon, leaving their mothers' circumscribed lives behind, young women felt exhilarated and bold. But the more women have achieved, the more they seem aggrieved." Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, Sept. 19, 2009. "Many women are being charged more in health care coverage, but as we all know, women are earning less. We all know that women earn 78 cents on the dollar to every men -- to a man [sic]." Michelle Obama, First Lady Percentage US workforce which is men: 53%. (Employed men, age 16 and over, in August...

The swine flu pandemic could kill millions and cause anarchy in the world's poorest nations unless £900m can be raised from rich countries to pay for vaccines and antiviral medicines, says a UN report leaked to the Observer. The disclosure will provoke concerns that health officials will not be able to stem the growth of the worldwide H1N1 pandemic in developing countries. If the virus takes hold in the poorest nations, millions could die and the economies of fragile countries could be destroyed. Health ministers around the globe were sent the warning on Thursday in a report on the costs...

The US Federal Reserve is contemplating a surprise move that could effectively make it the "bonus tzar" for more than 5,000 banks.

Part of the charm of Wall Street, and what scares most reasonable people away, is that it is as close to a meritocracy as exists on this earth. It's dog eat dog. It's sink or swim. You do a trade and it makes money, then you're a hero (for a moment anyway) and deserve a bonus. You bring in a deal, you get paid. You lasso more clients' assets under your firm's roof, you're a hitter. I once discovered some good news on the stocks I followed before the rest of the Street, and mentioned it to the sales force...

President Obama's compensation czar has been meeting for weeks with executives at some of the country's largest and most troubled companies as they face a Thursday deadline to propose how much they will pay their top employees. Kenneth R. Feinberg has the unprecedented task of deciding executive compensation at seven companies that received large government bailouts. His meetings with American International Group, Citigroup, Bank of America, General Motors, Chrysler, Chrysler Financial and GMAC have been conducted in secret, with neither Feinberg nor the companies willing to say much in public.

WASHINGTON -- The House has voted to restrict how Wall Street executives get paid after nine banks that took government aid rewarded thousands of their employees with bonuses topping $1 million each. The vote advances the first piece of a broader proposal by President Barack Obama to increase oversight of financial institutions. The legislation goes farther than Obama wanted by prohibiting large companies from fashioning pay incentives that encourage employees to take financial risks that could threaten the economy or the viability of the institution. The bill includes other Obama suggestions: It would give shareholders a nonbinding vote on compensation...

With the U.S. secretaries of energy and commerce in China this week, much of the attention focused on the standoff over emissions reductions or small breakthroughs in clean-tech cooperation. But yesterday, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said something amazing—U.S. consumers should pay for part of Chinese greenhouse-gas emissions. From Reuters: “It’s important that those who consume the products being made all around the world to the benefit of America — and it’s our own consumption activity that’s causing the emission of greenhouse gases, then quite frankly Americans need to pay for that,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told the American Chamber of...

White House appoints executive pay czarGlenn Somerville and Karey Wutkowski, Reuters Published: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration Wednesday named Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer who oversaw the government's compensation fund for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, as its pay czar to police compensation of top earners at companies receiving "exceptional" government aid. The administration also urged new laws to give ordinary shareholders more say on how executive salaries are set. The pay packets of top executives, which sometimes are equal to several hundred times the pay of average employees, ignited a storm of controversy after...

Business groups are daring President Barack Obama to impose pay caps on labor union bosses in light of indications the White House will limit how much corporate executives can be paid. President Obama has argued “corporate greed” has contributed to the economic crisis and appointed a “compensation czar” to review executive pay for several companies receiving taxpayer bailout money Wednesday. Now White House officials have told the press legislation should be enacted to limit executive pay in private companies through nonbinding shareholders votes.

Barney Frank talked about limiting executive pay across the board not just limiting it to bailout companies. Barney Frank tried to misrepresent the questions and was totally evasive on being direct. Frank may be on the finance committe but there is no question he does not understand real world ecconomices. It is further clear Barney Frank is disconnected from any kind of outside the betway reality. The time index to watch is after 5 minutes 35 seconds. At that point is where he hissy fits and ends the interview.

MELBOURNE (AFP) – Tall people earn higher wages than their vertically-challenged counterparts while being obese does not mean a slimmed-down pay packet, according to a new study in Australia.

"Who knew the badge, the holster and the iconic dark blue threads worn by Los Angeles police officers could make punching the clock so complicated? A federal judge ruled this week that Los Angeles Police Department officers should be paid for the time it takes them to put on and take off their uniforms and safety equipment, a decision that could cost the city millions of dollars in back pay and higher salaries." "In a 39-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess found that the several minutes it takes an officer to dress for duty is a vital part...

(2009-03-22) — With the debate over AIG executive bonuses nearly bringing official Washington to a standstill in the past three weeks, the Obama administration today expanded its plan to control Wall Street executive pay, adding provisions to limit compensation for star performers in the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Baseball (MLB).“Some of these sports stars, like AIG execs, have negotiated sweetheart deals paying them millions of dollars, and yet they lose games,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. “The president shares the outrage of the American people at these obscene salaries and bonuses. There’s...

WASHINGTON, March 20, 2009 – The Army, Navy and Air Force nurse corps are highly trained, capable and critical to the wartime mission of each service, the corps’ leaders told a congressional committee this week. The Senate Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee heard testimony March 18 from the services’ nursing chiefs. Each reported a healthy force that plays a vital role in maintaining the health of America’s servicemembers and saving lives on the battlefield. Despite a nationwide nursing shortage, all three services have had success in recruiting and retaining nurses, the leaders said. New incentive and training programs will help boost...

The giant insurance firm AIG has been paying bonuses to its top management team after those same people engineered huge losses that required more than one federal bailout. To what can this be compared? Bonuses to the Washington Nationals for their stellar 2008 season when they lost 102 games? Bonus money for quarterbacks for each interception they throw? Why are we rewarding failure with the tax dollars of the successful? Congress gets automatic pay increases for bad performance on just about everything. And Congress helped get us into this financial mess. They are currently spending more money we don’t have,...

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is in discussions with Rep. Barney Frank and other lawmakers on a plan to tie Wall Street pay to the long-term performance of the firms. Mr. Frank (D., Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and other prominent Democrats appear to back such a plan, though no legislation has been introduced. Barney Frank "We plan to put laws into effect, no question," said Mr. Frank. "We have to address this 'heads I win, tails I break even' issue." Compensation became a big issue in late 2008 when the government was forced to...

First, Arthur Santa-Maria called Bank of America to ask how to check the balance of his new unemployment benefits debit card. The bank charged him 50 cents. He chose not to complain. That would have cost another 50 cents. So he took out some of the money and then decided to pull out the rest. But that made two withdrawals on the same day, and that was $1.50.

SHOULD executives get to keep lavish pay packages when the profits that generated their compensation go up in smoke? As the financial crisis deepens, what might have been a philosophical question is now the topic of the day. With losses mounting at the nation’s largest financial institutions, years of earnings have been erased, investors have lost billions, thousands of employees have been let go, and taxpayers have been tapped to rescue the financial system. But executives who helped set the problems in motion, or ignored them as they mounted, are still doing fine. Humbled, perhaps, but well paid for their...

Congress will consider legislation to extend some of the curbs on executive pay that currently apply only to those banks receiving federal assistance, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said. Mr. Frank said the compensation restrictions would apply to all financial institutions and might be extended to include all U.S. companies. “There’s deeply rooted anger on the part of the average American,” the Massachusetts Democrat said at a Washington news conference today. The provision will be part of a broader package that would likely give the Federal Reserve Board the authority to monitor systemic risk in the economy and...

Financial-services firms will press for changes to the new rules President Obama announced Wednesday on executive pay for firms receiving government bailouts, but they appear to have little chance of success. The new rules, which would limit executive pay to as little as $500,000, could have a “chilling effect” on participation by banks and other firms in a new program the Obama administration is expected to unveil next week on the financial crisis, said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government affairs for the Financial Services Roundtable. Companies might look to remove themselves from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)...

President Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. — facing just 38 percent approval ratings in the poll for his stimulus spending package, according to this week’s Gallup poll — is taking further, dramatic action to destroy the U.S. economy. He is proposing a salary cap for executives who run companies in the U.S. which receive federal monies. Obama described executives as “living a life high on the hog.” Interesting metaphor, as communist activists derided capitalists in the past as “pigs.” See, http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/02/03/2009-02-03_obama_puts_salary_cap_on_bailout_busines.html Obama is acting as if this proposed “cap” on executive salaries will be limited only to Citicorp, AIG and the...

Vice President Joe Biden and a score of governmental officials recently announced their shock and disgust at news that Wall Street businesses were handing out billions–about$18 billion–in bonus money to executives, employees and assorted empty suits. The disgust is legitimate: how can you pay people extra money for bankrupting their businesses and, at worst, fleecing their shareholders? There’s buzz in Washington about throwing the CEOs who are behind these business failures in jail. There’s more talk about docking their pay and limiting salary to $400,000 for executives who take part in the bailout funds. But before the government officials from...

With President Obama’s signing today of a new federal law, the size of your paycheck may become just a little more interesting to your co-workers. Enactment of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is likely to spark many employees’ interest in possible pay discrimination. The measure will remove obstacles to lawsuits on the issue by reversing a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that refuted pay-discrimination charges by Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber plant in Alabama. The high court had rejected Ms. Ledbetter’s claim because it wasn’t filed within the 180-day statute of limitations. The new legislation...

Chinese baby slashed by angry nanny (Agencies) Updated: 2009-01-15 14:27 SHANGHAI - A 20-month-old Shanghai girl was recovering Thursday after her family's maid, angry at her employers, put her on a chopping block and slashed her face with a kitchen knife, police said. Police in the southern Shanghai district of Nanhui confirmed the attack, reported in local newspaper Shanghai Daily. They refused further comment. The baby's mother was also injured while trying to wrestle the knife away from the maid after she heard her daughter screaming late Tuesday night, the report said. Li Yuanmeng, a 20-month-old Shanghai girl, receives treatment...

Gov. Sarah Palin didn't ask for a pay raise and won't accept one during her current term, a spokesman said Wednesday. (please see url for full story)

Burris testified that in either July or September he told Monk: “Lon, I'm interested in that Senate seat and I think you've got access to the governor, so just let him know that I'm interested." Burris said he doesn’t know if Monk passed along the message. Burris also confirmed Thursday that he and his companies had donated over $21,000 to Friends of Blagojevich since 2002. The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that clients of Burris’ lobby firm have donated $107,690 to Blagojevich while winning over $3 million in contracts from the state. Burris also hosted a $1,000 a plate dinner for...

Federal judges lose bid for pay raisesA quirk in federal law prevents them from getting automatic cost-of-living increases. A bill before Congress to boost their salaries showed promise -- but that was before the Wall Street meltdown. By David G. Savage January 1, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- Joining the many who felt shortchanged by 2008 are the nation's federal judges. They were the only federal employees who did not receive a cost-of-living pay increase. **SNIP** In his fourth year-end report on the federal judiciary, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said he has been repeating himself. "I suspect many...

The Treasury Department still has no way of ensuring that firms receiving billions of dollars from the federal government are complying with executive compensation rules,the department said in a report released Wednesday. (See the report.) The report to the congressional oversight panel overseeing the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program said Treasury hasn't finalized a system to make sure firms are actually imposing restrictions on executives' salaries.Treasury said it is committed to "rigorous oversight" on firms that receive TARP funds but acknowledged that it is "continuing to develop a comprehensive compliance program to ensure that institutions adhere to executive compensation...

One of the debates going on right now in the world of politics has to do with raises. You know, those pesky little pay increases that everyone wants every so often to keep themselves motivated to do their jobs. Take me, for example. I work. And once a year, my efforts are evaluated, and if management comes to the conclusion that my activities merit an increase, then I get a raise. Alternatively, if they do not think I'm doing a good job, then I get no pay increase. The current political firestorm has to do with the raise that Congress...

A Carnegie Mellon University study has concluded that women executives out-earn their male counterparts. The study, which examined 16,000 executives over 14 years, found that women at the top of the business world bring in a bit more than men and are promoted at the same rate, countering the popular notion that women earn less than men for the same work. "That common perception is not borne out by this study," said Robert A. Miller, professor of economics and strategy and one of the authors. "If you're looking for evidence of gender discrimination in executive promotion and compensation, it's not...

Michael Keller has worked on five continents during his 15 years in the foreign service. He's been in Germany, where the standard of living is pretty good, and the Central African Republic and Cambodia, where he could only hope that his three children suffered nothing more than bumps and bruises because of poor medical care. He likes his work, but he's always confronted with a big source of frustration -- the overseas pay gap. When State Department diplomats are posted abroad, they lose locality pay. That's the amount added to a federal worker's salary based on where they work. Since...

Extracurricular PoliticsAUGUST 5, 2008 Teachers' unions are expert at presenting the interests of their members and of public school students as one and the same. Which is why it's always illuminating to see how the nation's largest teachers' union, the National Education Association, spends its political money. Each year, NEA members pay into a "Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises Fund" that allows the union to spend tens of millions of dollars on all manner of state and national political issues. Mike Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency, a longtime union watchdog, has tracked this fund's spending. In the 2007-08 fiscal year, not...

BAGHDAD — The Sons of Iraq in the West Rashid District of southern Baghdad received their first Government of Iraq paycheck at Joint Security Station Jihad Nov. 10, 2008. This is the first large-scale SoI payday conducted by the Government of Iraq and marks a landmark achievement in the SoI transition from Coalition forces control to GoI control. “Today is really the next critical step in the transfer that began on Oct. 1,” said Lt. Col. Mike Runey, plans officer with 4th Infantry Division and Multi-National Division – Baghdad, about the SoI payday. “Effectively, the transfer has happened. The critical...

Chicago, New York City, and now Washington D.C. all have programs that pay kids for good grades, but not just for good grades. In D.C. the program is called Capital Gains and kids can also cash in—up to $100 every two weeks—for showing up, not killing each other, and doing their homework. In Chicago 1,650 students just got to split nearly $270,000. They can earn as much as $4,000 for straight A’s. But underachievers needn’t worry; you can still get $1,600 for straight C’s….. Personally I am offended that they did not include lunch and recess, my two best subjects....

Governor wants lawmakers to lose pay By Amy Taxin LONG BEACH — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday demanded that lawmakers face consequences when they fail to pass a state budget on time, including a loss of pay and the inability to work on other bills until a spending plan is passed. Schwarzenegger’s comments came after an 85-day standoff between lawmakers over how to close a $15.2 billion deficit. The impasse was the longest in state history and put the squeeze on medical clinics, nursing homes, daycare centers and other community programs that receive state aid. The governor signed the state’s...

Obama went to some very, very expensive colleges. Columbia, Harvard. His family had little, if any money. We are led to believe that his family paid for his high school education at the expensive Punahoe school in Hawaii. But, but, but, a father who was a furniture salesman and a mother who worked at a local bank didn't have that kind of money to send him to Columbia and Harvard, two of the most expensive colleges in America!!! The question is: Who paid Obama's costs at Columbia and Harvard??? Yes, who paid for tuition, books, room and board, and incidentals???...

3.9% Average Pay Raise for Feds in 2009 in Temporary Spending Bill By Ralph Smith Tuesday, September 30, 2008 As of now, it appears that an average 3.9% pay raise for federal employees will become effective in January 2009. Federal retirees are in line to get a COLA that is going to be about 6% in January (the final figure will be calculated in October). full article at: http://www.fedsmith.com/article/1729/

Uh oh, here is another example of screaming at the other side while Obama has his own skeletons in the closet. He keeps repeating the fact that Sarah Palin supported the bridge to nowhere before she was against it, which is a fact that no one denies, but he always supported it. He's hitting her for earmarks while he granted $3.4 million in earmarks to the clients of Joe Biden's son, who is a lobbyist. Now, as Obama criticizes Palin, saying she's not for equal pay for equal work, it appears Obama has a problem. His Senate Office only pays...

CNSNews.com) - Non-intern female employees did better working on the Senate staffs of John McCain and Hillary Clinton during the latest public reporting period than they did working for Barack Obama, Cybercast News Service determined through an analysis of payroll data published by the Secretary of the Senate. On average, women working in Obama’s Senate office were paid at least $6,000 below the average man working for the Illinois senator. That’s according to data calculated from the Report of the Secretary of the Senate, which covered the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2007. Of the five people in Obama’s Senate...

Is our Governor--Jindal the Spineless, the Bonehead or the Deceiver? It pains me to express such since two weeks ago I praised him effusively after a press conference. Now, the question is whether Dorothy should help him find a noggin, starch for his courage shirt or a light beam to honesty. Something is now sorely lacking in our Governor. Meanwhile, the honeymoon clock is screeching. The love affair with Bobby Jindal is officially dead. More importantly, the public needs answers, now, for Jindal to be effective in the future. It appears that certain legislators put a legislative gun to Jindal’s...

WASHINGTON, March 13, 2008 – The 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation has suggested a new way of measuring military pay, proposed that more money be spent on special and incentive pays, and recommended restructuring the basic allowance for housing. Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Jan D. “Denny” Eakle -- former deputy director of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service -- chaired the commission and briefed the media on the recommendations yesterday. This was just the first release of the review, Eakle explained. A second volume, covering retirement and quality-of-life aspects of compensation, will be released in the summer. Eakle...

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers confronted corporate executives Friday about how they managed to take home hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation while their companies were taking a financial nosedive from the subprime mortgage crisis. "It seems that CEOs hit the lottery when their companies collapse," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said at the opening of the hearing. "Any reasonable relation between their compensation and the interests of their shareholders appears to have broken down." Appearing before the panel were Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender; Stanley O'Neal, formerly of Merrill...

Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS - News) said on Friday its Chairman and Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein was awarded about $53.97 million of compensation in its 2007 fiscal year, when the Wall Street bank largely skirted subprime mortgage losses that plagued many rivals. Blankfein also realized $45.76 million from the vesting of stock, bringing his compensation and other awards to about $100 million, according to Goldman's proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The compensation amount reflects a methodology used by many executive pay consultants. It differs from Goldman's calculation of Blankfein's "approved 2007 compensation" of $68.5 million,...