Executive PayWatch

from the inbox:

While the unemployment rate in Pennsylvania hovers at 7.8 percent, and legislators consider bills attacking the rights and pay of private and public sector workers, numbers released today by Executive PayWatch (www.paywatch.org) show that Pennsylvania-based chief executive officers haven’t had to worry about making ends meet.

Glen T. Senk, CEO of Urban Outfitters, Inc. based in Philadelphia, received nearly $30 million in total compensation in 2010 – 593 times more than what the average elementary school teacher made in 2009.

And excessive CEO pay isn’t just limited to Pennsylvania. Millions of Americans struggled to get back on their feet after the worst economic downturn in decades, yet CEOs of the nation’s largest companies got an average pay of $11.4 million in 2010 – a 23 percent increase in one year.

“The five highest paid corporate CEOs in Pennsylvania took home a combined $115 million in 2010. A state with an economy robust enough to allow corporations to pay five top executives $115 million should have no problem closing corporate tax loopholes that allow those same companies to avoid paying millions in corporate income taxes,” said Rick Bloomingdale, President of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.

“CEOs here in Pennsylvania are making millions while the state legislature is introducing bills benefiting millionaires and CEOs at the expensive of average working Pennsylvanians. Doesn’t Governor Corbett think we should make sure corporate CEOs pay their fair share?” asked Henry Lipput, an unemployed worker in Pittsburgh.

The release of the searchable online data bank is part of a broad campaign by the AFL-CIO to strengthen Wall Street reform, close corporate tax loopholes and ensure that poor and middle class Americans are no longer required to pay for the greed of corporate CEOs.

Executive PayWatch’s searchable data bank enables users to get information by state, industry and top-paid CEOs and compare the pay of top CEOs with the median pay of nurses, teachers, firefighters and other workers. For the first time, Facebook users will also have access to the information and to participate in the campaign.

The AFL-CIO’s CEO pay estimate is based on 299 companies in the S&P 500 Index whose executive compensation data is available for 2010. The 299 CEOs received a combined total of $3.4 billion in 2010, enough compensation to support 102,325 jobs paying median wages. The median wage for all occupations was $33,190 in 2009, according to the latest available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.