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To: Mike M2 who wrote (179116)	7/11/2002 11:47:23 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 436258

Give it back. kansascity.com Posted on Thu, Jul. 11, 2002 It's time CEOs paid a return By DIANE STAFFORD Columnist It's time CEOs paid a return Give it back. Angst about how to restore big-business credibility could be eased by a financial penalty for executives who were irrationally and exuberantly compensated while their corporate ships sank. Make them return their stock options, their bonuses and maybe even some of their 7- and 8-digit salaries. Make them hand over their multimillion-dollar vacation homes and extra luxury cars. The law goes after drug dealers by confiscating their ill-gotten gains. Why not do the same for top-level executives who cost workers their jobs and/or savings? Now that just about everyone's pocketbook has been hit in some way by the Enron-WorldCom-Arthur Andersen-Tyco-Merrill Lynch-Global Crossing-ImClone-Adelphia-etc. messes, people are paying closer attention to voices in the economic wilderness. Groups like United for a Fair Economy and the AFL-CIO's Executive Paywatch have been pointing out for years the growing pay gap between the C-level guys (CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, COOs, etc.) and everybody else. The groups' annual reports about bonuses and options granted to CEOs -- who pared work forces while maximizing short-term profit increases and enriching themselves -- have been criticized as socialist and whining. Proven C-level talent is paid what the free market says it is worth, said critics of the pay gap reports. They deserve it. You're just jealous, they said. Now, many of those critics are shoulder to shoulder with President Bush, who is shocked -- shocked -- that some of America's corporate shepherds may have been foxes in disguise. Those who wonder at, say, the Green brothers' compensation while Aquila was falling apart, aren't arguing that many executives have business skills and responsibilities that merit better pay than those they supervise. But how much better? And why should they be allowed, legally or morally, to escape with wealth when their business decisions or failures to act hurt so many workers' livelihoods? Those aerial photographs of WorldCom CFO Scott Sullivan's multimillion-dollar Florida estate are fueling worker bee wrath, which is only somewhat mollified by WorldCom's demand that he pay back last year's $10 million bonus ("earned" while the company under his watch was improperly accounting for nearly $4 billion in expenses). Laid-off workers, some of whom are losing their modest homes because they can't pay their mortgages, are buzzing, and the buzz is this: Greed is not good. There is such a thing as wretched excess. Calls are growing for blue-ribbon corporate boards -- which supposedly would oversee operations better than the director cronies who populate many boardrooms. So too are demands for compensation committees that hold the line on executive pay and tie bonuses to true performance. So too are pleas for stricter policing of accounting practices as well as hefty fines and jail time for business leaders who perpetrate or allow scandals to foment. Each of those remedies would salve some ethical wounds. Meanwhile, nice or not, plenty of workers want revenge. And they want it delivered with this message: You didn't earn it. You shouldn't keep it. Diane Stafford's workplace column appears on Thursdays. To reach her, write the business desk at 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108, send e-mail to stafford@kcstar.com or call 816-234-4359.