Executive pay rises 21.4 percent in DC area

The headline above (as with all headlines) was designed to catch your eye.

And it worked.

For good reason.

That’s a big pay raise. But before you call a contractor to have a swimming pool installed, or organize a march on Washington, be advised we are not talking about “federal” executive pay here.

Sorry.

The above headline graced the front page of the business section in Sunday’s Washington Post. And it’s true. Just not about you, if you are a senior federal executive no matter how important and complex the program you manage is. You can bring in more money than a Fortune 500 company CEO, but your annual gross federal income may be less than the industry top dog gets (after deductions) in a month.

According to the Post, the top dollar CEO here, David M. Zaslav of Discovery Communications, earned $156.1 million last year. Even when broken down on a weekly or monthly basis it is probably more than you and everybody in your office, unit or section made, combined, in 2014.

And there were 15 other D.C.-area CEOs who got more than $10 million in 2014. Less than in Chicago, New York City or San Francisco, but not bad for a government workers town. Unless one is a government worker.

On Monday — following the allegations against former House Speaker Dennis Hastert — Politico had a front page column headlined: Should We Pay Politicians More? The column by Kevin Hartnett noted that the prime minister of Singapore gets $1.7 MILLION per year. That compares to the $400,000 salary of POTUS.

The issue of executive compensation at the federal level is hard to escape. Especially in a week when another politician is caught with his ethics down!

Last Sunday’s Meet the Press show on NBC spent time talking about the quality of leaders we get (specifically in Congress). And how many of them become millionaires, like Hastert, a high school wrestling coach before being elected to Congress. He’s accused of paying more than $1 million in hush money to a former student.

Some people think if we paid senators and representatives more money we’d get a better class of pols. People who weren’t motivated to seek political power so they could get richer either after they left office or, in some cases, while still in Congress.

In a column last year, Federal News Radio’s Francis Rose laid part of the blame for relatively low SES salaries at the feet of the President. He said the administration’s late SES reform plan would make things worse, not better.

So what’s the deal? How much do top career feds make? (The SES pay range is $121,956 to $183,300). When did they get their last raise, and how much was it? And what are their prospects? The questions come easily. The answers, not so much.

NEARLY USELESS FACTOID

By Michael O’Connell

Marvel Comics’ Black Panther is the richest superhero, according to a 2014 report from Time Magazine. T’Chalia, Black Panther’s alter ego, owns all of the precious metal Vibranium, which is only produced in the small African country of Wakanada. T’Chalia’s wealth is estimated at $500 billion. By comparison, industrialist Tony Stark’s wealth is estimated at $100 billion.

Source: Time

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