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Labor official notes gap between pensions for executives, workers

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The AFL-CIO, pushing for more federal regulation of lucrative corporate salaries and pensions, released information Thursday about some of the sweetest executive retirement deals in the country.”As corporate America is slashing workers’ pensions left and right, we think investors and the public should know about the huge pensions these CEOs are raking in,” said Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO.The labor federation, which represents more than 9 million workers, posted updated information about executive salaries and pensions on its Web site.Trumka said average executive pay at a company on the Standard & Poor’s 500 is already more than 400 times the average worker’s wages. And many executives now get multimillion-dollar “supplemental executive retirement plans” at a time that many companies are cutting back on reliable “defined benefit” retirement plans for workers, he said.Those retirement deals could run as high as $6.5 million annually and may not reflect a company’s performance, Trumka said.The AFL-CIO Web site, http://www.paywatch.org, looks at 25 of the richest executive pension plans in the country, based on research done with the Corporate Library.Trumka said the Securities and Exchange Commission is pushing for more public disclosure of executive pay and other benefits, an area that has angered company investors. He noted that some companies that have cut worker retirement several times in recent years have some of the richest pension deals for their chief executive.He urged union supporters to push the SEC to improve disclosure of executive pay and benefits. The labor federation, he said, is urging the SEC to also require companies to publicize their standards for tying strong job performance to executive pay.—On the Net:AFL-CIO Paywatch: http://www.paywatch.orgVail, Colorado


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