World Bank employees’ salaries are tax-free?

[kurth]

... Wolfowitz’s efforts to cut employee perks and police staff ethics was dismissed as hypocrisy by some staffers because of his role in assuring that his girlfriend was highly rewarded, and in giving two of his close aides huge raises when they followed him from the Defense Department.

Wolfowitz brought with him Robin Cleveland, whose title is counselor and whose pay is $263,000, and Kevin Kellums, a communications specialist, who makes $249,000. The only Bush administration official with a higher salary is the president himself, at $400,000.

The World Bank declined to provide Wolfowitz’s salary, although published estimates range from a little over $300,000 to $400,000.

The circumstances of Wolfowitz’s personal companion, Shaha Ali Riza, may be unique, but hers is not the only salary that seems large by U.S. government standards. The most senior, high-level policy makers at the bank are paid upward of $200,000, and a few edge up over $300,000. Unlike U.S. government workers and almost all Americans in the private sector, World Bank employees’ salaries are largely tax-free, which makes their disposable income dramatically larger.

http://www.kansascity.com/136/story/70958.html

[wakeme2008]

1. Appears to be the case

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6550995.stm

"But rapid rises in her tax-free World Bank salary to about $193,000 - more than the $186,000 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice receives before tax - have aroused ire among other bank employees."

And for a guy that makes ~ $350,000 you would think he could buy new socks.

[NormanYorkstein]

2. Who runs the World Bank? Why do we have a "World Bank"?

Please excuse me I am ignorant and uneducated. What is this "World Bank" for?

[RoseMead]

3. You might find this documentary interesting

War By Other Means (1992)
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-539979692859...

[izzie]

4. I have read a yes and no on this one.

I guess I will have to read to really find out if they pay or not.

[leveymg]

If you work for an int'l agency, and are out 183 days/yr, no fed income tax -

that's the way it works. It's an incentive for Americans to take overseas assignments, that presumably causes some hardship to be away from home most of the year.

[leveymg]

5. Dupe - self-delete

[Selatius]

6. Bank staffers are using his hypocrisy to resist his cutting their lavish salaries and policing abuse

Career bank officials had strongly held views on how international aid programs should be run, and they were accustomed to salaries and other perks far more lavish than those of U.S. government workers.

The new president challenged the bank staff on both counts, and he did it with a managerial style that added to the resentment.

The bank staff was especially infuriated by Wolfowitz’s decision to create a powerful internal integrity unit to oversee employees’ conduct. It cracked down on such things as travel, closely checking whether employees spent extra days on overseas trips at bank expense. It also increased efforts to assure compliance with a rule against staffers accepting gifts worth more than $50.

Wolfowitz’s efforts to cut employee perks and police staff ethics was dismissed as hypocrisy by some staffers because of his role in assuring that his girlfriend was highly rewarded, and in giving two of his close aides huge raises when they followed him from the Defense Department.

http://www.kansascity.com/136/story/70958.html

If Wolfowitz hadn't fucked up with his girlfriend, these staffers would have no damn leg to stand on, but anything associated with Bush Co. invariably includes Grade A fuck ups.

The way I see it, neither Wolfowitz nor these bloated staffers deserve much sympathy.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Oh, God! Thanks for the information. Did not know. n/t

[jody]

8. Don't worry, the privates in Iraq pay taxes to make up for such losses in taxes.

but unfortunately true.

Blackwater USA mercenaries in Iraq also don't pay taxes.