In every major country, corporate chiefs unashamedly enrich themselves while overseeing the wholesale destruction of jobs, wages and working conditions of ordinary working people, and demanding governments axe essential social programs to fund huge tax cuts for the wealthy few.

That Australia is no exception to the rule can be seen in the results of research by Dr John Shields of the University of Sydney economics department published in the Journal of Australian Political Economy. His paper reviews the movement in the CEO salaries paid by 51 corporations that are members of the Business Council of Australia (BCA).

Shields points out that the BCA, comprised of the country’s 100 largest corporations, “aggressively champions the cause of greater labour market ‘flexibility’ and ‘labour cost competitiveness’...” In fact, in many cases the large pay packets commanded by the CEOs are determined by their ability to drive down the conditions of employees, so as to enhance profits.

Shields’ research shows that the average annual CEO pay climbed by 564 percent over 15 years, rising from $514,433 in 1989-90 to $3.42 million in 2004-05. The average compounded yearly rise was 13.5 percent, or five times the inflation rate of 2.8 percent.

Over the same period, the average wage of full-time adult workers rose just 85 percent, or by 4.2 percent a year, from $29,198 to $54,080. In 1989-90 the total salary of a CEO, including base pay and bonuses, was 18 times that of an average worker; today it is 63 times higher.

Translated into weekly earnings, an average CEO is paid $65,000 a week, or around $11,000 more than the annual wage of an average worker or nearly $40,000 more than the annual earnings of the 1.6 million basic wage workers who make up 20 percent of the Australian workforce. These workers struggle to make ends meet on just $25,188 a year, or $484 a week.

More Porkies Col. :)

Steve Madden – executive remuneration packages

I will repeat, what I said above

“private companies are not ruled by the workforce or the union movement and are free to negotiate what they want.”

If I buy a car, I will decide how much I will pay for it, I will not consult with unions or other self-appointed trolls as to how much.

If I buy a house I will decide how much I will pay for it and compete with others who may want to buy it, without reference to some self-appointed opinion troll who insists on telling me what is a “fair and reasonable” price.

If I recruit staff, I will pay them according to the agreement we make and not based on some self-appointed union monger’s opinion. At the moment that means I have sub-contracted out the manning needs of one of my interests and have, for instance, engaged the sales staff through an third party organization which has a separate contract with my company, just to keep things “simple”.

If I am recruited by an organization, I negotiate what rate to charge and the terms of engagement. They can either accept that rate and terms or find an alternative source of the skills I offer, it is up to them. Recently one organization rejected a project but then came back later to engage my services for something else.

None of this has anything to do with self appointed union official or wage fixing tribunals or wages legislation or anyone else.
It has everything to do with private people negotiating with one another based on what they believe they are worth.

As for your snide aside regarding “porkies”. Pursue your cheap shots as far was you want, it is about all you can muster but you are deluding yourself if you think I have produced any, the nearest to a lie here is your inane insistent that I have made some, that is the lie Steve, your continual harping on at something which has not happened, if you were not so self-important and malevolent, you would be tragic.

"Collective Securities" is the new revamped question we need to debate widely now if we are to re-state our knowledge jointly, with our connected live-experience in this modern time.

We need to adopt a "No Wrong Door" policy throughout Australia, everywhere. It can't happen without the awareness of government, and individuals working in government through administrations that engage their capacity with that inside the Australian community.

I stand strong behind the unifying voice coming from community. We need more voices to stand for peace, partnership, and renewal.

Without a consolidated sustainable paradigm towards a national employment plan, we loose a quality of life, which will effectively be transfered as a burden, to generations to come.

Fair Go for "who" is the question facing present day Australia.

http://www.miacat.com

Col

At last you have outed yourself and finally admitted you are an employer and company director. Now we can put your posts on IR matters in the correct context.

If you and the other "political troglodytes and economic lunatics" wish to continue to tear the fabric of our society apart fair enough, but don’t expect me to remain silent.

Steve Madden, “At last you have outed yourself and finally admitted you are an employer and company director.”

Nothing to out there,

I have been a “company director for the past 12 years, since single director companies were allowed under Australian Corporation law. (I think) it was the 11 December 1995 that legislation was enacted and I incorporated the day after.

That entity is registered with an ABN to collect and pay GST and what amounts to provisional tax. It is also necessary because as an “independent contractor” to government and other commercial enterprises, I need to organize workcover, which, along with ASIC fees, I pay.

Earlier this year I incorporated a second entity of which I own half the shares and someone else the other half. This entity is the one for which I have chosen to subcontract out the sales staffing and which has cost me around $20,000 in development funding in the past 6 months and will have cost me about $100,000++++ before I see a positive cash flow and for which I am entitled to a “return for risk”.

As far as your asserting I am an employer, you are wrong. Whilst the other shareholder is not a director, he is not an employee either.

As for other ventures, I also own, through my single director entity, half a mortgage franchise, for which bought and pay PI and computer services for.

As for “If you and the other "political troglodytes and economic lunatics" wish to continue to tear the fabric of our society apart fair enough, but don’t expect me to remain silent.”

Steve Madden, Talk is CHEAP but it is not “talk” which creates jobs, jobs come from “action”.

Whilst my business will not have any employees immediately, I will still employ salesmen through the sub-contract arrangement and that creates income for those salesmen. Far from “tearing the fabric of society apart”, I am in fact “weaving” the fabric.

It is the “know-all and do nothing” like you who actually tear and degrade the fabric which you feel so precious and self-righteous about you hypocrite.

There are two types of young people, those who understand the system and those who do not. Regardless of this, all young people know that our parents and grandparents lived under a different employment structure, even a different economy, than we do now.

Everyone has to stop pretending that the campaigning against the workchoices legislation is for the benefit of the "children." We know what we are up against, wishing it was 1955 isn't going to change the world economic system. Even if it could I would prefer to compete for my job, have incentives to work to the best of my ability, be able to negotiate my own employment agreement, be fired if I cant do the job as good as someone else, and be rewarded for the great job I do in order to maintain the standard of living I have today. Since when did Australia become a nation of people to lazy to have to work for their job.

I, and most other young people, couldn't care less about the loss of telemarketing and shoe making jobs to other countries, they are not the positions we aspire to. Complaining against work choices is for 40 - 50 year olds who are to set in their ways to change the way they think about employment. There is no "Australian Fair Go Way of Life" protecting our jobs and our families. Anyone who thinks there is now, or will be in the future if the labour party is elected is deluded. The rise of the third world is a fantastic thing, millions of people have been lifted out of poverty, and if that means I wont have a job making car parts, and I can buy a television for $100, who am I to complain?

Choice is the key, it is worth more than you can imagine, and we have it more than anyone else ever has. The last thing young people want is to give that up for some "job security"