Recession? CEOs Are Over It

Posted on Apr 10, 2011

Flickr / zio Paolino

General Electric, like many U.S. corporations, had a big fourth quarter. It earned nearly $4 billion for the period.

Capitalists need not fear, as the reduction in CEO pay during the recession appears to be an artifact of the recent past, with corporate executives now raking in as much as they did before the financial slump—and some even more.

The fat salaries of executives flies in the face of the country’s high unemployment and cuts in workers’ wages, benefits and rights. —JCL

The New York Times:

After shrinking during the 2008-9 recession, paychecks for top American executives are growing again—in many cases, significantly so.

Rarely has the view from the corner office seemed so at odds with the view from the street corner. At a time when millions of Americans are trying to hang on to homes and millions more are trying to hang on to jobs, the chief executives of major corporations like 3M, General Electric and Cisco Systems are making as much today as they were before the recession hit. Indeed, some are making even more.

The disparity is especially stark as companies are swimming in cash. In the fourth quarter, profits at American businesses were up an astounding 29.2 percent, the fastest growth in more than 60 years. Collectively, American corporations logged profits at an annual rate of $1.678 trillion.

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