ASI E-News Poll Results 8/10/10
Our question about Walmart CEO Michael Duke's annual salary drew a record number of comments. See what E-News readers had to say and share your thoughts.
Walmart’s CEO Michael Duke makes a $35 million annual salary. The average Walmart employee makes about $15,000 a year on an hourly wage. This is unmistakably a colossal discrepancy–but is it justified? Is it reasonable that Duke, who is admittedly the head of an enormous Fortune 500 corporation, makes 2000 times what his employees make?
Yes, it's reasonable: 27%
No, it isn't reasonable: 66%
Yes, it's reasonable: 27%
No, it isn't reasonable: 66%
Not sure: 7%
Comments:
Comments:
“No one is worth $20 million per year. I owned my own company, and never dreamed of taking that much out.”
“If his employees do not like it, they should start their own department store chain. If critics do not like it, they should offer them jobs from their own company, or make up the difference with their own money.”
“Yes it is reasonable. He is responsible for a company whose revenue is larger than most countries. 11% of China exports go to Walmart. Would it be better is they paid him less and he quit and replace him with the HP CEO? I am sure this guy works 20 hours a day. Very deserving compared to hourly staff who never took time to graduate from high school.”
“This is one of the main reasons that in today's corporate world, there is little or NO employee loyalty. When employees continue to see this type of executive arrogance and greed, why would any reasonable worker expend any extra effort or show the slightest loyalty to the company. Left unchecked, this executive "hogs at the trough" mentality will destroy U.S. companies.”
“I favor compensation based on performance. My salary is.”
“Perhaps a better question is what would these people be doing if they didn't have a job at Walmart? Maybe living off of the taxpayer? I know people who work at Walmart who are hard working, salt of the earth folks. But really, we need to stop this class warfare stuff. It is anti-free market and we already know that socialism doesn't work, with a host of European governments going broke. Capitalism isn't always pretty, but name one system that is better. It is always the other guy that is greedy, but I'm not...oh yeah, right! Do you really think that a Soviet style commissar is going to be more fair than the free markets? Do liberal politicians not show favoritism, or do give appointments to their buddies? No one gives away anything without recompense, except God Almighty.”
“Ridiculous, there should never be this kind of disparity in pay from one position to another in a company. He should be ashamed of himself.”
“Duke is getting rich by selling Chinese products and underpaying his employees. We need to rebuild America's economy by returning to MADE in the USA products that will put Americans back to work.”
“The question is can anyone do better for less?”
“It's the WORLDS biggest corporation for goodness sake! I think for that, his salary is quite reasonable. The fact that the majority of the jobs at Walmart are low/no skill jobs is based on the type of business they are in, not the exploitation of the workforce.”
“The big question is, how much stock does he own and what have his actions done to maintain stock value. If it is a well run company, does Berkshire Hathaway own any stock--that's my way of measuring his level of pay.”
“If his employees do not like it, they should start their own department store chain. If critics do not like it, they should offer them jobs from their own company, or make up the difference with their own money.”
“Yes it is reasonable. He is responsible for a company whose revenue is larger than most countries. 11% of China exports go to Walmart. Would it be better is they paid him less and he quit and replace him with the HP CEO? I am sure this guy works 20 hours a day. Very deserving compared to hourly staff who never took time to graduate from high school.”
“This is one of the main reasons that in today's corporate world, there is little or NO employee loyalty. When employees continue to see this type of executive arrogance and greed, why would any reasonable worker expend any extra effort or show the slightest loyalty to the company. Left unchecked, this executive "hogs at the trough" mentality will destroy U.S. companies.”
“I favor compensation based on performance. My salary is.”
“Perhaps a better question is what would these people be doing if they didn't have a job at Walmart? Maybe living off of the taxpayer? I know people who work at Walmart who are hard working, salt of the earth folks. But really, we need to stop this class warfare stuff. It is anti-free market and we already know that socialism doesn't work, with a host of European governments going broke. Capitalism isn't always pretty, but name one system that is better. It is always the other guy that is greedy, but I'm not...oh yeah, right! Do you really think that a Soviet style commissar is going to be more fair than the free markets? Do liberal politicians not show favoritism, or do give appointments to their buddies? No one gives away anything without recompense, except God Almighty.”
“Ridiculous, there should never be this kind of disparity in pay from one position to another in a company. He should be ashamed of himself.”
“Duke is getting rich by selling Chinese products and underpaying his employees. We need to rebuild America's economy by returning to MADE in the USA products that will put Americans back to work.”
“The question is can anyone do better for less?”
“It's the WORLDS biggest corporation for goodness sake! I think for that, his salary is quite reasonable. The fact that the majority of the jobs at Walmart are low/no skill jobs is based on the type of business they are in, not the exploitation of the workforce.”
“The big question is, how much stock does he own and what have his actions done to maintain stock value. If it is a well run company, does Berkshire Hathaway own any stock--that's my way of measuring his level of pay.”
