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June 19, 2003

Hard working executives rewarded with raises

The Washington Post reports that executive pay rose significantly last year:

Total cash compensation in 2002, including salary, bonus and other direct payments, rose nearly 17 percent, to a median of about $1.2 million, in 2002. The median figure represents the point at which there are an equal number of chief executives above and below.

The bigger salary and bonuses in 2002 came in a year when corporate profits continued to stagnate and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index, a broad indicator of the market, dropped 23 percent.

So, they led their companies to a year of stagnant profits and falling share prices. Obviously, they highly deserve this raise. And I’m sure that these same executives will be rushing to Congress with proposals to raise the minimum wage.

Why do we put up with crap like this and then force hard working but unskilled people to work 2 or 3 jobs just to pay their bills? If you make minimum wage, you bring home about $200 for a 40 hour work week. Probably no benefits. In Tampa, a city known for its lack of adequate public transportation, you have to own a car to keep a job. So, you have car maintenance and repairs, car payments, rent, utilities, food. Your budget is busted. Don’t even think about buying clothes or taking in a movie.

No problem. Just get a second job. That’ll bring in another $100 or so a week, and it’ll vastly increase personal productivity during times normally wasted: “family time” and “a good night’s sleep”, to name a couple. Of course, you may not have time for that movie anymore, but a person in your economic class is seen as shiftless if she so much as thinks about entertaining herself. So avoid criticism, and take it one step further: get a third job, and drop the apartment. You can sleep in your car between jobs and bathe in the ditch behind the dumpster. Your savings on rent will quickly propel you into the upper stratospheres of American income earners! Further, you will earn the respect of your peers, those hard working executives who are worth so much more than yourself!

Living Wage Resource Center

Posted by Norwood at June 19, 2003 09:29 AM
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