Executive Perks
♦Article published by Yahoo Finance: In the midst of the worst global financial crisis since the Great Depression, public anger against executive compensation and benefits has reached fever pitch, so some perks may be on the way out.
TOP TEN MOST Outrageous Executive Perks
♦Original Article: YAHOO Finance
1. The Parting Perk : Jack Welch ran General Electric for two decades. The year after he retired on Sept. 30, 2001, Welch got roughly $2.5 million in perks under the agreement.
2. Office Renovations: John Thain, the former head of NYSE Euronext, he hired by Merrill Lynch in late 2007 to steer the struggling brokerage firm through the financial crisis. Thain spent $1.2 million to renovate his new office.
3. Stay Bonus…Even if Your Dead: Some companies are so keen to hold on to executives that they promise big pay and benefits even if the talent dies — in contracts known as golden coffins.
4. Gross Ups: General Dynamics, Chief Executive Nicholas Chabraja died at the end of 2008, his estate would have received almost $30 million, according to the ship and airplane builder’s latest proxy statement.
5. Tax Preperation: Occidental Petroleum provided Chief Executive Ray Irani with $403,285 in tax preparation and financial planning services in 2008. That’s nearly eight times the median U.S. household income and more than the $400,000 salary of the President of the United States, according to the AFL-CIO, a union group.
6. Keeping the SEO’s Safe: Affiliated Computer Services spent over than $1.7 million from 2004 through 2007 for security systems, advice and equipment along with “personal protection services” for Chairman and founder Darwin Deason, according to the company’s 2007 proxy statement.
7. Country Club Perks: Countrywide Financial, now owned by Bank of America, paid more than $940,000 in country club memberships for CEO Angelo Mozilo and other executives including Stanford Kurland, David Sambol and Eric Sieracki from 2003 through 2006, according to proxy statements filed by the mortgage giant.
8. Cars and Gas: Mattel CEO also gets a company-issued credit card that he can use to gas up his car.
9. Why Drive When You Can Fly: In 2006, Ford paid $517,560 so executive Mark Fields could fly to work in Michigan from his Florida home and back on weekends on the company’s aircraft. The automaker and Fields agreed to change the perk and now he commutes first class, at a cost of roughly $29,000 a year, according to the company’s latest proxy. Ford still covers the tax on this perk.
10. Plum Pensions: After decades of tireless service, CEOs deserve a comfortable retirement. If they haven’t managed to save some of their prodigious earnings, some companies make sure the money keeps flowing.
Read More of this Article at Yahoo Finance:
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Tags: executive perks, finance, yahoo
