Bill HR 1714 - greatest or Funniest Idea Ever? Give your opinion - 1 Apr 2009

Bringing Common Sense to Executive Compensation (Rep. Robert Brady)

http://blog.thehill.com/2009/03/31/bringing-common-sense-to-executive-compensation-rep-robert-brady/

March 31st, 2009

Like
so many other Americans, I was outraged when I found out that AIG was
going to use taxpayer dollars to award $165 million in bonuses to its
executives. With so many families struggling to get by in this economic
crisis, the pay-out of these bonuses showed that executives on Wall
Street remain entirely out of touch with our country’s working people.
We have seen time and time again that the culture on Wall Street is to
award executives for a job not-well done.

And yet, not everyone at big Wall Street banks makes big Wall Street
bucks. I found myself wondering whether this pay-out could have even
happened if there had been someone in the room when the decision was
made to award these bonuses who truly knew the value of a dollar. What
if someone who puts in a year’s worth of hard work without the promise
of a seven figure bonus at the finish line was asked how much an
executive should make?

I have introduced a bill, HR 1714, to bring this kind of common
sense to executive compensation. This bill would require that an
employee from the bottom of the pay scale at every institution that has
received TARP funds be appointed to the institution’s executive
compensation board. My hope is that this employee will serve as a
stand-in for all of the Americans whose hard-earned tax dollars have
gone to stabilize these institutions, and will bring much-needed sense
to the compensation of the executives that have accepted TARP funds.
Hard-working Americans are helping these firms weather the economic
storm, and I think that it is only right to have a hard-working
American at the table the next time executives try to give themselves
another bonus paid for by taxpayers.