Are CEO’s Finally Getting A Clue?

With all of the heat being brought down on CEO’s of late, it appears that some of them are taking a hint.  The American public outrage over top executive pay at many of the countries largest firms has been fierce.  Frustration levels couldn’t get higher after watching corporate leaders take millions of dollars in bonus pay as they watched their companies stock and balance sheets fall like a rock. Many times at the expense of American retirement plans. Perhaps the time has finally come that many of the CEO’s are going be compensated based on performance versus outlandish guarantees.

Yesterday, Llyod Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs and 6 other company heads decided to forgo their 2008 bonuses and only collect salary.  It’s fitting since the company’s stock has performed very poorly this year off nearly 70 percent.  In case you were about to feel sorry for the choice that the company executives had to make and miss out on their holiday bonus, it should be noted that Blankfein does get paid $600k in salary.  Furthermore according to this Yahoo Article, Blankfein got a whopping 68 million dollar bonus last year!  Not bad and I still say to Forget The Lottery, Give Me A CEO Job. I’m not sure if he’ll have the extra cash to buy holiday gifts this year, but something tells me he’ll be just fine.  In spite of his massive paycheck last year, it should be noted that I think the loss of bonus is a step in the right direction for CEO compensation.

It’s going to be interesting to see if other top level executives follow Blankfein’s lead and forgo any large bonuses that are eligible to them in 2008.  Something tells me that not many will volunteer to give up their million dollar checks.  Do you think that CEO pay is out of control, furthermore do you think CEO’s will follow the Goldman Sachs example and give up their bonus money?  I’d love to hear your feedback.

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