$100k an hour?? Is this true??

[mattomjoe]

I know the health care CEOs' compensation is obscene, but I thought I heard on both Keith and Rachel's shows that the top ones total compensation averages out to about $100K an hour! I has not seen anything other figures out there supporting this -- is it really this much?

[mattomjoe]

1. shameless kick...

cuz I'm dying to know how they came up with this -- and it's great ammo against the deathers arguments

[angstlessk]

2. sugar...you are mis-informed..that is what a NEW shrink is paid

try about 10,000 per hour?

[ipaint]

3. Sounds right.

I found an article that said the ceo of united care made $125 mil in 2005. Thats about $50,000.00+ and hour. With the extravagant raises these guys get 100,000 hr sound about right.

[greenman3610]

4. hundred bucks an hour? That's for the little people.

[TheKentuckian]

5. One guy made 3.5 mil in ca$h and like 3/4 of a billion in stock last year

Big money for just the hired help, imagine what the moneychangers would think he deserved if he owned the company.

[panader0]

6. A million bucks a year is 500 an hour if you actually worked 2000 hours

I think most make more and work less.

[NightWatcher]

7. 100$ an hour comes out to be only $200,000 (roughly) a year

[FiveGoodMen]

9. 100k = 100,000

[NightWatcher]

14. d'oh, didnt catch the "K"

[anigbrowl]

8. I'm not sure their numbers are right

assuming a 40 hour work week, that would come out at about $200 million. It's possible one CEO has made this much (I recall reading a few years ago about the CEO of United Health making about $125m) but a quick look at CEO salaries on forbes.com suggests this # is way, way off: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/12/best-boss-09_CEO-Compensation-Health-Care-Equipment-Services_9Rank.html

Salaries are higher in insurance, but that list isn't limited to health insurance companies (and it would still be way off the figure quoted in the OP); http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/12/best-boss-09_CEO-Compensation-Insurance_9Rank.html

Either you didn't hear it right or their researchers got sloppy.

edit: you do realize, folks, that $100k per hour as quoted in the OP is $100,000 per hour?

[ipaint]

16. The ceo of united heath was cashing stock options worth 1.6 billion.

Earlier this year, McGuire cashed out options worth $124 million, and in 2004 he was the highest-paid executive in Minnesota, with total compensation of almost $125 million.

Company officials have defended those paydays by pointing to McGuire's success in transforming United from a financially ailing insurer into the second-largest in the country. The company also is a Wall Street darling; its stock price has climbed more than 200 percent in the past five years.

McGuire emphasized Tuesday that in his opinion, stock options were appropriately awarded to him and other executives according to company policy, which until last year allowed the option price to be established in periods when the company's stock was in a dip or before a sharp run-up.

http://www.startribune.com/business/11213701.html

In March, the Wall Street Journal raised questions about possible options backdating at UnitedHealth (a practice that, while permissible under certain circumstances, can amount to outright theft of shareholder assets.

No wrongdoing has so far been established, but the company, the SEC, and government prosecutors are all still investigating. Even so, the stock is down 22%, a drop that has lowered the value of McGuire's trove of in-the-money options from $1.6 billion in December to a still hefty $1 billion today.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/07/10/8380799/index.htm

He ended up paying back $618 mil leaving him with a billion.

[Catshrink]

10. Check out paywatch.org

it's run by the AFL-CIO.

http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/

[LeftyFingerPop]

11. This equates to $208 million per year

$100,000 x 2080 working hours per year (based on 40 hour weeks)

[BlooInBloo]

12. Good work if you can get it.

[question everything]

13. The CEO of UnitedHealth

which got big by purchasing other companies, a DOCTOR McGuire, was getting $95 MILLION a year. You can calculate the hourly rate.

And he had to resign, and pay some back because of... back dating stock options. Not for the obscene compensation while so many are without.

[CrispyQ]

15. This will make you sick.

If you don't have insurance, maybe you shouldn't read it.

http://sickforprofit.com/ceos/

snip...

UnitedHealth CEO
Stephen J. Hemsley

2007 Compensation: $13.2 million
2008 Compensation (Forbes): $3,241,042
Former Managing Partner and CFO of Arthur Andersen (BusinessWeek)
Total Value of Unexercised Stock Options (Forbes): $744,232,068
2009 Options Exercise: $127,001,281
Value of Wayzata, Minnesota Home (Hennepin County Assessor): $6,640,000

[rocktivity]

17. Click on the pic (which I made for my company's web site)

for info on what the CEO of United Health Group earns:



:headbang:
rocktivity

[babyblonde]

18. Arthur Anderson CPAs

this Arther Anderson

one crook job to another

Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, was once one of the "Big Five" accounting firms among PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and KPMG, providing auditing, tax, and consulting services to large corporations. In 2002, the firm voluntarily surrendered its licenses to practice as Certified Public Accountants in the United States after being found guilty of criminal charges relating to the firm's handling of the auditing of Enron, the energy corporation, resulting in the loss of 85,000 jobs.... wiki

[mattomjoe]

19. Thanks everyone for the input

most of what you've all shared seems consistent with what I've seen -- which seems to be less than $100,000/hr (but ridiculously high nonetheless).