| BOSTON
- April 28 - Median CEO pay at the
37 largest defense contractors rose 79 percent from 2001 to 2002,
while overall CEO pay climbed only 6 percent, according to a new
report from United for a Fair Economy, "More Bucks for the Bang:
CEO Pay at Top Defense Contractors," by Chris Hartman and David
Martin.
Median pay was 45 percent higher in 2002 at defense contractors
than at the 365 large companies surveyed by Business Week magazine.
The typical U.S. CEO made $3.7 million in 2002, while the typical
defense industry CEO got $5.4 million.
The jump in median defense contractor CEO pay far exceeded the
increase in defense spending, which rose 14 percent from 2001 to
2002.
Compared with an army private's pay of $19,585, the average CEO
at a major defense contractor made 577 times as much in 2002, or
$11,297,548. This is also more than 28 times as much as the
Commander in Chief's salary of $400,000.
The study also looked at the size of campaign contributions by
the largest defense contractors and found a strong correlation
between campaign contributions made by a company in the 2000 and
2002 election cycles and the value of defense contracts awarded to
that company. Ninety percent of the difference in contract size can
be accounted for by size of contributions. For example, top weapons
contractor Lockheed Martin was also the top campaign contributor
among defense firms.
The 37 companies included in the CEO pay study were all the
publicly-traded corporations with at least $1 billion in total
defense contracts from 2000 through 2002. The list includes
well-known defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing,
Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics, as well as some
companies not usually associated with military spending, such as
FedEx and Dell Computer. Compensation was defined as salary, bonus, "other compensation," restricted stock awards, long-term incentive
payouts, and the value realized from the exercise of stock options.
United for a Fair Economy is a national, independent non-profit
that spotlights growing economic inequality and advocates shared
prosperity. The report is on the web at http://www.FairEconomy.org.
Hard copies are available upon request.
###
|
