From Cal Thomas: Finally an op-ed that makes sense, or ... Is he turning 'liberal' on us?

Some CEOs have tin ear on salaries

by Cal Thomas
The Columbus Dispatch

During the 2008 presidential campaign when candidate Barack Obama told 'Joe the Plumber' that he wanted to "spread the wealth around," it sounded to a lot of conservatives like socialism: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need," in the words of Karl Marx.

There is a kind of wealth-spreading, however, that ought to meet the political litmus test of conservative Republicans, liberal Democrats and radical Independents. At a time of high unemployment, too many layoffs and too few new jobs in the private sector, it is disheartening to see so many CEOs having recovered enough from their personal recession to pay themselves salaries that would have shamed the super-rich in America's Gilded Age.

USA Today reported last week in a story on CEO compensation that "three-quarters of CEOs got raises - and, in many cases, the increases were substantial." Employee pay, on the other hand, effectively stalled. Median CEO pay, reported the newspaper, increased 27 percent last year, meaning the average CEO received $9 million in 2010. Even in a struggling economy, I wager most people could get by on $9million a year. In a strange twist, General Electric, whose chairman Jeffrey Immelt now advises President Barack Obama on job creation, paid no taxes last year, despite earning $14 billion. But that's another column.

(More here.)