By ANDRE FRANCISCO
If you listen to the CEOs of the top aerospace and defense contractors, the planned Pentagon spending cuts are going to be devastating to defense industry workers. Don't believe everything you hear.
Not only is the correlation between federal contracts and defense industry jobs suspect, but CEOs should take a look at their own compensation packages before they start threatening the jobs of their employees.
An analysis by POGO investigator Ben Freeman showed that a CEO of a top five aerospace and defense contractor makes on average $21.5 million per year in compensation, which is 268 times what the average defense industry worker makes. When you compare defense CEO compensation to salaries for soldiers with 10 years of experience, the gap is even greater.
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Andre Francisco is an online producer for the Project On Government Oversight.
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Why do we have to listen to these industry schills spread their talking point crap every time POGO writes an article about the disparity in compensation between DOD workers and executives? The fact of the matter is, the US taxpayer pays 100% of the salary of Lockheed Martin's CEO, because they have no line of business other than contracting to the US government. We pay the vast majority of the other defense contractor CEO's salaries too, for similar reasons.
In fact, the US taxpayer should not be on the hook for paying the CEO or the engineers of these defense contractors who are designing a new weapon. Either the company themselves should pony up the cash or if public money is to be spent, it should be spent by a not-for-profit government design bureau. NASA designed the Saturn V rocket. Remember, that was how it was done back when we could go to the Moon. Werner Von Braun and his pack of German rocket scientists worked for NASA.
Breaks my heart Neil Armstrong died now when we don't even have a rocket that can put a man in low earth orbit, let alone repeat his feat of landing on the Moon in 1969! You can thank a defense contractor for that. When you see one of these blood-sucking defense contractor CEO's siphoning $25 million a year of your tax dollars, keep in mind who it is that really destroyed our manned space program. The guilt for our decline in national technological capability is on them. So you tell me, should they continue to make millions per year at your expense?
Posted by: Dfens | Aug 27, 2012 at 04:03 PM
Although the CEO's compensation seems significant, the potential cuts to DOD appropriations will have little, if any impact, given the CEOs are subject to the OFPP Executive Compensation cap and would not be reimbursed more than the current cap on government contracts -- $763,029. Whether the CEO makes millions or $763,029, the government would not reimburse more that the $763,029. The issue is not how much the CEOs are paid, the issue is how much the government reimburses the contractors for the CEOs pay. $21.5 million in pay is really only $763,029 reimbursed by the government. I really wish POGO would present all sides of an issue and not just the side that makes the better headline. I am not defending contractor pay by any means, I am just asking that POGO present the information in the proper context.
Posted by: Ed | Aug 25, 2012 at 11:03 AM