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Still quite a bit of chatter today about the Marie Antoinette-ish tactics of Circuit City CEO Philip Schoonover, who along with his board decided to fire several thousand workers who were making more than the market would bear (we're talking $12-$15 an hour). Anyway, a few folks were wondering how much Schoonover himself raked in. According to Forbes, he was at $1.4 million (salary and bonus) in 2006, plus another $3 million or so in long-term compensation. Which got Julie Tilsner at Blogging Stocks wondering why, in the name of improved bottom lines, he didn't lower his compensation even further - to, say, $980,000 a year, plus benefits and stock options.
But wait just a minute! Schoonover is number 406 on Forbes' CEO pay list! At the end of the day, he's not making very much compared to a lot of other chief executives. You could argue that in his upper-strata world, it's hard to make ends meet on a mere $2 million a year. So the idea that he should be fired, then rehired at a lower salary is absurd. Ridiculous. Nobody would even suggest it. Well exactly. So why is the company pulling this stunt with its rank and file?
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.