More proof the elite class rewards CEO's with obscene payouts, while the former do-nothing Congress gave not a damn for the worker struggling with the obscenely low federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour. With the 110th Congress thankfully convening tomorrow, a raise to $7.25 per hour will at least acknowledge the disparity; though won't put too much more bread on the table.
Kudo's to Barney Franks for spot-lighting the grotesque severence package of Robert Nardelli.
:applause:
* * *
WSJ
1/3/07
Rep. Frank Hammers Home Depot
It didn’t take long for Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), chairman-designate of the House Financial Services Committee, to express outrage at the CEO shuffle at Home Depot.
“The action of Home Depot’s board of directors to simultaneously dismiss Robert Nardelli and provide him with $210 million in severance is further confirmation of the need to deal with a pattern of CEO pay that appears to be out of control.” Frank said in a statement “Some defenders of CEO pay argue that CEOs are rewarded for increasing the stock or the overall value of the company, but judging by today’s market reaction, Mr. Nardelli’s contribution to raising Home Depot’s stock value consists of quitting and receiving hundreds of millions of dollars to do so.”
Frank, a longtime critic of outsized executive pay packages and a proponent of a higher minimum wage for workers, added: “Business leaders who are frustrated by the unwillingness of the American voter to be supportive of their agenda for economic growth should look to the contrast of Mr. Nardelli’s consolation prize and the resistance of business to raising the minimum wage.” –Mary Lu Carnevale
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/01/03/rep-frank-hammers-home-depot/