Free Republic

This is the pension squeeze companies aren't talking about: Even as many reduce, freeze or eliminate pensions for workers -- complaining of the costs -- their executives are building up ever-bigger pensions, causing the companies' financial obligations for them to balloon. Companies disclose little about any of this. But a Wall Street Journal analysis of corporate filings reveals that executive benefits are playing a large and hidden role in the declining health of America's pensions. Among the findings: • Boosted by surging pay and rich formulas, executive pension obligations exceed $1 billion at some companies. Besides GM, they include General...

Under pressure from the Hill, the Securities and Exchange Commission is pushing the adoption of the so-called "Katie Couric" clause. The SEC wants publicly traded companies to give shareholders more information about multimillion-dollar salaries of their executives and employees. The name comes from the "Today Show” co-host, who is leaving NBC at the end of May to join CBS as anchor and managing editor of the to be retitled "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric. " It’s been widely reported that Couric is to receive $15 million over five years. The SEC proposal – primarily aimed at requiring the disclosure...

University of California officials said Monday they are fixing the tax forms of more than a dozen executives, after an audit found their pay wasn't reported correctly. UC President Robert C. Dynes said he and 19 other senior managers will get corrected W-2 forms for benefits the university did not properly report as taxable compensation. UC executive pay has been an issue for several months following a series of articles in the San Francisco Chronicle reporting that UC quietly paid top leaders millions in stipends and other compensation at a time when student fees were being hiked to offset state...

DETROIT - Auto executives worldwide believe sales of hybrid cars and low-cost, fuel efficient models will outpace sales of sport utility vehicles, pickups and luxury models over the next five years because of lingering concerns about fuel prices, according to an annual survey released Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT Eighty-eight percent of the executives said they expect gas-electric hybrids to gain market share, up from 74 percent in 2004. Seventy-nine percent said they expect low-cost cars to gain share. Just 35 percent expect the luxury market to grow — compared to 48 percent two years ago — while 36 percent expect SUVs will...

Many articles have been written about the phenomenon of “outsourcing”—the practice of sending work needed within a company to be performed outside of the company. More recently, the word has become synonymous with “offshoring”—the practice of sending the work to be done by lower-paid workers overseas, often in third-world or emerging countries such as Mexico, China, and India. These phenomena have been going on for some time—one of the first industries to be moved outside of the United States has been textiles. Indeed, while garment manufacturing was first sent to low-cost locales, there was some outcry over the growth of...

Suppose you could eliminate the factors often blamed for the shortage of women in high-paying jobs. Suppose that promotions and raises did not depend on pleasing sexist male bosses or putting in long nights and weekends away from home. Would women make as much as men? Economists recently tried to find out in an experiment in Pittsburgh by paying men and women to add up five numbers in their heads. At first they worked individually, doing as many sums as they could in five minutes and receiving 50 cents for each correct answer. Then they competed in four-person tournaments, with...

<p>How can a US Bankruptcy judge grant United Airlines permission to break a contract with it's employees, regarding their pension.</p> <p>So many individuals have put their lifes work into this airline, just to have the Chief Financial Officer Jake Brace rip the rug right out from under them. These pensions are what employee's worked for; now UAL has gotten permission from a federal bankruptcy judge to terminate it's employees' pension plans.</p>

Corporate boards are shedding their sleepy images and becoming more ruthless when something is not quite right at the top. The result: Top U.S. executives are being knocked off their pedestals faster than ever. Boards are asking high-level company officers to hit the road for anything ranging from a financial scandal, lackluster results, improper insider trades or even an affair with another executive. In February, U.S. companies announced 103 CEO changes compared with 92 in January, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement and employment research firm. It was the fourth consecutive increase in monthly turnover and the first...

A union representing some of University of California's lowest-paid workers will rally in San Francisco next week to protest what it says are $2.4 million in bonuses recently handed out to medical center administrators. Workers represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 called the bonuses "outrageous" when other employees haven't received raises for two years and student fees are going up. A UC statement said the bonuses are in keeping with an incentive plan in place since 1992. Executives receive base salary plus an incentive award based on performance. "The incentive compensation is a...

A survey of 7,300 senior executives around the world by consultant McKinsey Co found that four out of five executives think outsourcing is good for the global economy. Split continent-wise, the ratio was the same for executives in Europe, Asia and the US, the survey, released on Thursday, said. When queried on the implications of outsourcing on their own businesses, 70 per cent of the Europeans said it's good, 97 per cent of Indians said the same, as did 86 per cent of Chinese. But the figure falls in America, which is home to the world's most globalised companies --...

MORGANTOWN (AP) -- Weirton Steel Corp. has asked a federal bankruptcy judge for permission to offer top executives $4 million in bonuses for staying with the company until it emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Northern Panhandle steelmaker last week promoted Chief Financial Officer Mark Kaplan to president and named D. Leonard Wise its new chief executive. Wise, 68, replaced former President and CEO John Walker, who resigned in June. Kaplan, 41, could get as much as $1.4 million under the plan, including a $600,000 bonus in three installments and $500,000 when the company's reorganization plan is approved or...

<p>Drawing such a cool reception that he had to ask the crowd for applause, Gov. Gray Davis on Wednesday told hundreds of California business leaders he understands the strains they face during the state's fiscal crisis.</p> <p>"You are the golden goose, and if you don't succeed we can't succeed," Davis told executives at the 77th annual Sacramento Host Committee Breakfast at the Sacramento Convention Center.</p>

<p>FORT WORTH, Texas (CNN) -- Outraged by news that troubled American Airlines had planned to give its executives bonuses, flight attendants rescinded their approval of wage cuts and plan to vote again, a union official said late Friday.</p> <p>No date for the new vote was set. Wednesday, the flight attendants agreed to more than $10 billion in wage concessions over six years. The airline had said it would file for bankruptcy protection if the union did not approve the cuts.</p>

<p>DALLAS -- When the week began, American Airlines' rank-and-file held the power to keep the world's largest carrier out of bankruptcy.</p> <p>By week's end, however, the pressure had shifted toward the company's executives as plans to give them bonuses and protect their pensions threatened to undermine employees' willingness to sacrifice their own wages and benefits.</p>

After Employees Agree to Cuts, American Airlines Discloses Trust to Shield Executives FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- One day after American Airlines employees agreed to annual cuts of $1.8 billion, the cooperative spirit turned acrimonious Thursday as union leaders expressed outrage over newly disclosed perks granted to executives. One angry union leader said if workers had known earlier about a pension trust created last year to protect executives' benefits in the event of a bankruptcy filing, they might have voted against the steep concessions intended to keep the world's largest carrier out of Chapter 11. The executive perks, which included...

Think CEO pay is out of control? Wait till you see what these guys get when they retire. For a brief, shining moment, it looked as if outrage had finally triumphed over excess. Earlier this month, soon after Delta Air Lines disclosed that CEO Leo Mullin had hauled in a bonus of $1.4 million plus $2 million in free stock in 2002, howls of protest from shareholders and employees prompted a dramatic turnabout. After all, in 2002 the airline had lost $1.3 billion, slashed thousands of jobs, and seen its stock price collapse by 58%. Mullin announced that he was...

MICHAEL EISNER and Bob Iger, the top executives at Walt Disney, were awarded more than $24 million (£15 million) between them in pay and bonuses last year even though the company’s share price plunged by more than a third. Mr Eisner, chairman and chief executive, last year took home a $5 million bonus and $1 million as a salary. Mr Eisner, who has come under fire from investors because of the poor performance of the entertainment group’s ABC TV network and other faltering aspects of the business, chose to take much of the $5 million bonus in restricted shares, which...

<p>"For a list of all the ways that technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three."</p> <p>Twenty years ago, the majority of newly recruited executives failed. Now, thanks to two decades of evolving human-resources philosophy, research, testing and execution, the majority of newly recruited executives "leave to pursue other opportunities."</p>

<p>SAN FRANCISCO — As the crackdown on corporate fraud continues, some executives are suing their former companies, saying they were fired after refusing to cook the books.</p> <p>There's no nationwide tally of such lawsuits. But with so much shady accounting and pressure to meet Wall Street numbers in recent years, attorneys say more corporate executives and whistle-blowers are striking back and not taking the fall for higher-ups.</p>

<p>SILICON Valley's vaunted meritocracy is badly in need of a tuneup. The problem is not that hard work isn't rewarded and innovation and ingenuity don't pay. It's that for many valley executives, pay no longer appears to be connected to performance.</p>