by Nanette Byrnes
... Billions in taxpayer assistance shouldn't come with a million-dollar CEO bonus for a chaser.
But public relations aside, what about real pay reform? Among the banks, only UBS is going beyond smaller bonuses. It's completely overhauling executive pay plans. Top managers there won't get bonuses for at least three years. If the company is doing well at the end of that period, they'll get the extra cash. And UBS is paying its chairman a fixed salary only — he's not eligible for a bonus.
A sharp rethinking of pay packages is in order across all industry. Boards of directors need to watch what kinds of risks they're paying executives to take. And payouts over three to five years like the UBS plan make sense. They'll make sure managers have to eat their own cooking ...
... if Bernie Madoff's unwitting investors have to give back their ill-gotten gains, why shouldn't executives have to return money they didn't deserve in the first place?
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99401727&ft=1&f=1057