IBM Chief's 2008 Pay Valued at Nearly $21M

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According to the Associated Press, IBM's chairman and chief executive, Sam Palmisano, received a compensation package valued at nearly $21 million in 2008. I know it seems excessive but when you take into account the company’s performance, especially in these hard times, $21M might not seem like a whole lot. What do you think?

In describing the pay package in a regulatory filing Monday, IBM's board praised the Armonk, N.Y.-based technology company's "very strong" performance despite the rocky economy. IBM's profit jumped 18 percent to $12.3 billion in 2008, helped by better margins in software and services. Those are two areas where IBM's corporate customers continue to invest as a way to save money, by outsourcing or automating some of their tech chores, like managing payroll.
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cool. Most americans work 40-60 hours a week to make 40-60,000 a year, and this dude plays pool and swims all day in his luxury swimming pool and gets paid 21 million just to sit in a chair and get his ass kissed by everyone under him.
 
Shut up with the CEO hate already. If it's such an easy job, y'know just sitting around jerking off, why don't you go fill the spot? I mean, all you have to do is play pool and swim all day.
 
Find me a company to be the CEO of and I would do exactly that.
 
lowteckh said:
Shut up with the CEO hate already. If it's such an easy job, y'know just sitting around jerking off, why don't you go fill the spot? I mean, all you have to do is play pool and swim all day.
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Because we didn't spend as long as they did climbing the corporate ladder up to all that free money & luxury lifestyle.
 
And to add, $21 million isn't out of proportion either when you compare it to pretty much every major corporation's CEO, and much less than many of the higher earners.

Johnny Depp's taking in $56 million for Pirates 4, and who knows how much more in royalties. Cry more about IBM's CEO who most likely has a shit load more responsibility.
 
Profits are up - CEO got paid a lot. I'd say that's the way it should be. What drives me nuts is the companies whose profits are gone, tremendous losses (even in good economic times), stock price is in the toilet, and the CEOs are still getting paid millions in bonuses for what? Their great performance?
 
"Shut up with the CEO hate already. If it's such an easy job, y'know just sitting around jerking off, why don't you go fill the spot? I mean, all you have to do is play pool and swim all day."

QFT...there is a reason they are compensated that much, if not for the effort and talent, for reasons to ensure loyalty, as they are at the helm of a massive ship, lots of people depend on their decision making.

They aren't paid for effort, they are paid for the responsibility on their shoulders...
 
AVT said:
Because we didn't spend as long as they did climbing the corporate ladder up to all that free money & luxury lifestyle.
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Life's unfair, did you just wake up and realize this? I didn't win the Mega Millions, whoop world sucks.
 
The CEO gets credit for what all the people 12 tiers below him do. Doesn't seem very fair. I'm all for people getting paid lots of money, as long as they earned it.
 
this would actually be news if the company was in terrible shape, but its not...so how is this news?
 
RADEoN said:
The CEO gets credit for what all the people 12 tiers below him do. Doesn't seem very fair. I'm all for people getting paid lots of money, as long as they earned it.
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You know...a while ago...I might have agreed with you, what with me being on the low end of things.

But now that I've seen a company go through a couple of CEOs and seen the screw-ups they made, I no longer see anything wrong with a CEO making bank if he/she can actually make the company viable and profitable.

In simpler terms: Pimpin' ain't easy...

:D
 
So pretty much, don't scam your company out of billions, and you're a good CEO?
 
RADEoN said:
The CEO gets credit for what all the people 12 tiers below him do. Doesn't seem very fair. I'm all for people getting paid lots of money, as long as they earned it.
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They get blame, censures, and jail time too. I reckon you don't know what CEOs do nor who they are accountable to.

Furthermore, I think you'd be shocked to hear how much the sales-holes make in commission in these companies for a few big deals/FY.

$21M vs. $12.3B? Why are we arguing about 0.1% of profit?
 
Whoever nicked you as RaGeon some weeks ago was right on the money. Seriously, what the hell is your problem? Just arrived in the US of A and can't figured out why not everyone is paid the same socialist wage?
 
KingPariah777 said:
"Shut up with the CEO hate already. If it's such an easy job, y'know just sitting around jerking off, why don't you go fill the spot? I mean, all you have to do is play pool and swim all day."

QFT...there is a reason they are compensated that much, if not for the effort and talent, for reasons to ensure loyalty, as they are at the helm of a massive ship, lots of people depend on their decision making.

They aren't paid for effort, they are paid for the responsibility on their shoulders...
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I agree with you... IF AND ONLY IF that company turns profit AND stays afloat. All these compensation packages for banks and other industries that are falling/getting bailed out however are complete bullshit. You jump into the job, do a good job turn the company around then you get your bonus if and only if you do it.
 
And IBM's head did it AND did it amidst this failing economy. He should have been paid even more. This has nothing to do with the fuck-up called Wall Street, or the fuck ups of the banks, or the fuck ups of the people.
 
RADEoN said:
The CEO gets credit for what all the people 12 tiers below him do. Doesn't seem very fair. I'm all for people getting paid lots of money, as long as they earned it.
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At some point in that CEO's career he/she was one of those people 12 tiers below. They put in the time and now they're earning the reward. Is that really such a hard concept to grasp?
 
CEO's are like free agents in sports. The good ones are gonna get paid big time and just like in sports there will be some duds.
 
As long as they're not looking for a bailout I don't give a fuck. But the minute some scumbag company asks for a bailout with the CEO's making millions, that's when they need an ass beating.
 
By outsourcing half its labour to India, firing half of what's left, and giving all of the former workload to its existing contracted employees, he manages to raise profits.

Meanwhile, those of us (ie, the contractors) who *actually* did all the work to made this possible see nothing, and Dear Leader gets a yearly bonus in a slumping economy that's worth 10-20 times as much as the average north american will make in their entire lifetime.

Sounds fair to me.
 
KingPariah777 said:
"Shut up with the CEO hate already. If it's such an easy job, y'know just sitting around jerking off, why don't you go fill the spot? I mean, all you have to do is play pool and swim all day."

QFT...there is a reason they are compensated that much, if not for the effort and talent, for reasons to ensure loyalty, as they are at the helm of a massive ship, lots of people depend on their decision making.

They aren't paid for effort, they are paid for the responsibility on their shoulders...
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What a load of crap! My mother and father grew up during the Great Depression when most people were lucky if they had a roof over their heads! 60 years of being the wealthiest country in the world has completely derailed our sense of reality! Nobody and I mean nobody is worth 21 million dollars bonus in a single year! Nobody! What did he make last year and the year before and how do you spend that much money? Is he going to take it with him when he dies? How many houses, cars, boats, hoe's does a man need? Can you live in a 25 room mansion? Like what? Sleep in a different room every night? What about that 15 car garage? Can you really appreciate all those automobiles? Talk about the surreal life! Travel the world and jerk off in a different town every night? Have a different girl in 13 countries and 30 cities? Even in the midst of our worst economic crisis in decades we still act as if this bloat is just so cool. This man deserves commendation for leading IBM through some tough economic times but he was doing his job. Nobody and I mean not even the President of the United States of America is worth 21 million in bonuses for a single year of labor! Nobody! Wake the hell up people!
 
if you read it you would know he raised company profits 18% in one year from about 10.3b to 12.3b. his decisions made the company 2 billion more in profits that year. he gets 21 million for that. that is 1% of just the increase in profits he made for that company. that seems very fair to me considering he has more impact on the company then anyone else.

compared to actors CEOs dont get paid nearly as much.

Clooney got 20 million for oceans 11. a moved that grossed 444 million
thats 4.5%

The CEO for IBM gets about the same for a years work at a company grossing 12.3 billion
thats about .0016%

if he was paid like an actor he would have made over 550 million. 20 million is fair.
 
I don't care what a CEO pays him/herself.. just if they run their company into the ground and don't offer what I want as a consumer, I won't be voting for them with my wallet. It's as simple as that. Government controlling private sector pay is even worse. That isn't freedom, it's tyranny.
 
In Soviet America, people raised in Capitalist America expect you to make the same as them regardless.
 
RADEoN said:
cool. Most americans work 40-60 hours a week to make 40-60,000 a year, and this dude plays pool and swims all day in his luxury swimming pool and gets paid 21 million just to sit in a chair and get his ass kissed by everyone under him.
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More incoherent and ignorant whining. Look at A-Rod's contract and compare and contrast it against this CEO's contract and then come back and tell me which one seems fairer. This type of meaningless class/money envy is not only unproductive, but only will heap ridicule on you instead. Please stop spewing this teenage "it's not fair" nonsense. It will go a long, long way into making you a much happier person.
 
Dildonose said:
What a load of crap! My mother and father grew up during the Great Depression when most people were lucky if they had a roof over their heads! 60 years of being the wealthiest country in the world has completely derailed our sense of reality! Nobody and I mean nobody is worth 21 million dollars bonus in a single year! Nobody! What did he make last year and the year before and how do you spend that much money? Is he going to take it with him when he dies? How many houses, cars, boats, hoe's does a man need? Can you live in a 25 room mansion? Like what? Sleep in a different room every night? What about that 15 car garage? Can you really appreciate all those automobiles? Talk about the surreal life! Travel the world and jerk off in a different town every night? Have a different girl in 13 countries and 30 cities? Even in the midst of our worst economic crisis in decades we still act as if this bloat is just so cool. This man deserves commendation for leading IBM through some tough economic times but he was doing his job. Nobody and I mean not even the President of the United States of America is worth 21 million in bonuses for a single year of labor! Nobody! Wake the hell up people!
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What is it with certain ideologies or societal philosophies that renders peoples intellect to the level of amoeba? Your type of outrage is not only fake, but it's dangerous because you know the level of envy you are projecting only ausages your sense of entitlement.
 
This thread makes me think we'll be not just part of the way, but all of the way socialist in my life.
 
CEO's are paid by the performance. So it can be a very short lived career if you can't provide what you claim to do for the company. If you can't turn a company around, you are nixed and done. Do a great job, make the company a lot of money, and the bonus is there.

CEO's have a huge and very stressful job. They might not do the technical side of things that we do and don't get paid as good as he does, but it's quite a bit of work.
 
r3d3 said:
By outsourcing half its labour to India, firing half of what's left, and giving all of the former workload to its existing contracted employees, he manages to raise profits.

Meanwhile, those of us (ie, the contractors) who *actually* did all the work to made this possible see nothing, and Dear Leader gets a yearly bonus in a slumping economy that's worth 10-20 times as much as the average north american will make in their entire lifetime.

Sounds fair to me.
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Seriously? Get a grip. At least read into what a CEO does before you spew. God, this is getting tiresome.
 
wiseoracle said:
CEO's are paid by the performance. So it can be a very short lived career if you can't provide what you claim to do for the company. If you can't turn a company around, you are nixed and done. Do a great job, make the company a lot of money, and the bonus is there.

CEO's have a huge and very stressful job. They might not do the technical side of things that we do and don't get paid as good as he does, but it's quite a bit of work.
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x2, especially on the high paced and stresfull job.
 
The median household income for 2007 for all households in the USA was $50,740 according to the US Census Bureau. The IBM executive's salary could pay the salary for 413 people using the median income. 413. I'm sure you could pick 413 people randomly from a phone book and find a dozen that would do his job just as well for a lot less.

Now, I wouldn't go so far to say that all CEO's jobs are easy, but they certainly don't work significantly harder than anyone else to justify their incomes. There is absolutely no reason that a CEO should be paid that much more than anybody else. An executive job is no more important than than most other jobs in most companys. Sure, a CEO's decisions can effect the whole company, but so can an engineer's, programmer's, HR person's, group of wage-slave-manual-laborers, etc.

Remember, you as a consumer pay their salary. Every product/service you buy has a CEO behind it, and that CEO is overpaid most of the time. And if you think you don't pay their salary by not buying their product, guess again. Your fellow citizens are buying their product or service, and that means that your fellow citizens have less money to buy YOUR companies product. Everything is connected.
 
If i recall correctly in 2007 Yahoo!'s CEO was "compensated" 70 something odd million and they were already dropping profits left and right.
 
lowteckh said:
Life's unfair, did you just wake up and realize this? I didn't win the Mega Millions, whoop world sucks.
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wat?

Man, you people throw around arguments that more than 50% of the time have nothing whatsoever to do with the topic discussed, or previous statement.

To the rest of you, don't you love how politics now is all about party affiliation, and not passing the legislation that makes sense while refusing to pass legislation that doesn't make sense?

I'll leave it at that and let all the liberals&conservatives go burn each other on the streets or something.
 
AVT said:
wat?

Man, you people throw around arguments that more than 50% of the time have nothing whatsoever to do with the topic discussed, or previous statement.

To the rest of you, don't you love how politics now is all about party affiliation, and not passing the legislation that makes sense while refusing to pass legislation that doesn't make sense?

I'll leave it at that and let all the liberals&conservatives go burn each other on the streets or something.
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5241015.jpg
 
poopy said:
Now, I wouldn't go so far to say that all CEO's jobs are easy, but they certainly don't work significantly harder than anyone else to justify their incomes. There is absolutely no reason that a CEO should be paid that much more than anybody else. An executive job is no more important than than most other jobs in most companys. Sure, a CEO's decisions can effect the whole company, but so can an engineer's, programmer's, HR person's, group of wage-slave-manual-laborers, etc.
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I really could not disagree more.

The CEO has an incredible responsibility as the stakes are WAY higher than any other position in the company. How can you say it's no more important? If a programmer screws up he can go back and fix what he did with a slap on the wrist. If the CEO screws up tens of thousands of jobs are at stake as well as billions of dollars.

This guy earned the company an 18% increase in revenue in a failing economy and got a bonus of 1.7%. Kudos to him. All these people that act like it's such an easy job and "CEO" equates to free Ferrari's and Yachts are all kidding yourselves.
 
Me thinks half the people here would be happier living in communist China or Russia. Oh shit wait, even over there there are billionaires and millionaires everywhere. What to do what to do? There's no place on Earth that would satisfy all the whiners and Q.Qers. Perhaps Antarctica?
 
Rob94hawk said:
As long as they're not looking for a bailout I don't give a fuck. But the minute some scumbag company asks for a bailout with the CEO's making millions, that's when they need an ass beating.
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w1retap said:
I don't care what a CEO pays him/herself.. just if they run their company into the ground and don't offer what I want as a consumer, I won't be voting for them with my wallet. It's as simple as that. Government controlling private sector pay is even worse. That isn't freedom, it's tyranny.
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QFT

Dildonose said:
What a load of crap! My mother and father grew up during the Great Depression when most people were lucky if they had a roof over their heads! 60 years of being the wealthiest country in the world has completely derailed our sense of reality! Nobody and I mean nobody is worth 21 million dollars bonus in a single year! Nobody! What did he make last year and the year before and how do you spend that much money? Is he going to take it with him when he dies? How many houses, cars, boats, hoe's does a man need? Can you live in a 25 room mansion? Like what? Sleep in a different room every night? What about that 15 car garage? Can you really appreciate all those automobiles? Talk about the surreal life! Travel the world and jerk off in a different town every night? Have a different girl in 13 countries and 30 cities? Even in the midst of our worst economic crisis in decades we still act as if this bloat is just so cool. This man deserves commendation for leading IBM through some tough economic times but he was doing his job. Nobody and I mean not even the President of the United States of America is worth 21 million in bonuses for a single year of labor! Nobody! Wake the hell up people!
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In case you haven't heard, we have what is called a free-market economy.
What a privately held or shareholder-owned company does with its money is none of my business or concern. It's their money.
If their CEO gets a bazillion dollars and didn't do squat, it's up to those with a stake in the company to determine whether or not they find that acceptable, not me.

Either they go bankrupt for their stupidity or they they pull their collective head out and demand a certain level of performance for their employees to measure up to.

As w1retap said, I vote with my wallet. If that company still puts out a good product at a price I'm willing to pay, that's where my concern ends.

As lowteckh and Nidhogg mentioned, compare that CEO's salary with a pro athlete or any other stripe of entertainer you care to mention. I would wager that most sane individuals would consider a successful CEO to worth more than an entertainer, but I doubt those of you whining about the CEO's pay spew the same drivel when it comes to entertainment.

Now when our fearless leaders start taking my tax money to pay that CEO, we have a completely different issue.
Until that time, I don't care.
 
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