New Site Targets CEO Pay

On the serious side, the site provides a forum to research CEO pay for a variety of firms. Particular attention is paid to the pay packages of:

• Bank of America Chairman and CEO Hugh McColl was paid over $96 despite the stock underperforming the S&P index.
• Conseco’s Gary Wendt received a $45 million signing bonus, stock options worth close to $59 million and $18.8 million worth of restricted shares.
• William Esrey of Sprint was awarded $3 million in stock options despite a failed merger with WorldCom Inc.

Pay Say

The site offers an email link to the board of each firm, the company itself, to other firms that sit on the affected company’s board, as well as mutual funds and pension funds that the visitor may have an interest in.

Thanks to a 50% rise in stock options and a 22% increase in salary and bonus, the average CEO made $20 million in 2000, compared to the average hourly worker’s increase of 3%.

Pay Grade

The site notes that over the past two decades, the average pay of “regular” working people increased just 74%, while CEO pay soared 1,884%. To illustrate the point, you can input what your pay was in 1995, and the site will project what you would now be earning if your pay advanced at the same rate as CEOs over the past five years.

The site also offers an arcade of “games” with a serious message, including:

• ‘GREED! The Executive PayWatch Board Game
• Smash Corporate Greed! (like Whack-a-Mole)
• Ping Pong or Pong Pong (“pong”)
• Find the Health Insurance!
• Shatter the Glass Ceiling
• Picture Puzzle

Not to mention Word Games for the kids, or the young at heart, including Word Find, Scramble, Crossword and a coloring book.