House Dem Calls For Hearings Into Corporate Pay

Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) has called on Rep. Darrell Issa (D-Calif.), the chair of the House Oversight Committee, to hold a committee hearing to investigate corporate executive compensation. 

“As the principle oversight committee in Congress, we have a unique opportunity and responsibility to examine the extent to which the problems in CEO compensation that led to the economic crisis continue to exist today,” Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the committee, wrote in a letter to Issa. “We should also examine in detail why CEO pay and corporate profits are skyrocketing while worker pay stagnates and unemployment remains unacceptably high, as well as the extent to which our tax code may be encouraging these growing disparities.”

Cummings’ request comes as a result of an Institute for Policy Studies report released Wednesday that had four interesting findings: 

1. 25 of the top 100 CEOs received more in compensation last year than their company paid in 2010 federal income taxes

2.  These 25 CEOs received an average compensation of $16.7 million more than last year’s $10.8 million average for S&P 500 CEOs. 

3. Only five of these 25 companies paid any taxes at all. 18 of the 25 collected tax refunds from the Internal Revenue Service that averaged $304 million. 

4. CEOs in 22 out of the 25 corporations received pay increases in 2010. Out of those 22, 13 companies increased CEO pay while decreasing the company’s income tax bill or expanding its corporate tax refund. 

In the letter, Cummings attributes the current economic crisis to these “reckless” and “illegal actions” by corporations.