Qwest's CEO Got a Raise Amid Layoffs Last Year
Qwest Communications International Incorporated chief executive officer and chairman Edward Mueller was among the lucky few to get a raise in 2009. His pay increased by five percent, to $12 million last year, according to The Associated Press, despite a weakened economy marked by deteriorating demand for telephone land lines. He also received the raise, a calculation based on a regulatory filing, despite cuts to about 2,800 Qwest jobs, roughly 8.5 percent of the Denver-based company's workforce. Meanwhile, although Qwest uses online social networking, such as Facebook and Twitter, as a marketing tool, it prohibits employees from accessing the sites while in the office, reports the Highlands Ranch Herald. Yet, efforts to cut down on cyberslacking have been hampered by cell phones that allow people to access the Internet. As for Qwest's stock, it jumped 1.55 percent to $5.25 after briefly hitting a new 52-week high yesterday at $5.32. In the last six months, the stock is up over 46 percent (via news release).
Comments
Submitted by right (not verified) on Mon, 2010-06-14 13:42.
spoken like a true CEO. Go get um.
Submitted by Jeff Montgomery (not verified) on Wed, 2010-03-24 21:04.
While I don't really comprehend the compensation levels of Fortune 500 execs, I also accept that the only people who should be judging them are those who are paying them.
It's all a matter of how much money they make for shareholders. If their compensation is worth it, then as far as I'm concerned, that's all she wrote.
Companies like Qwest are both protected and inhibited by law. For example, I cannot just grab some cable and start laying phone lines through willing neighbors' yards to sell phone service like some kid with a lemonade stand (the ultimate symbol of capitalism of course). Communications is a highly politicized -- and not at all free -- market. Therefore, compensation structures are shielded from full competition, under which there would probably be a closer relation between compensation and performance.
At the same time, Qwest is subject to all sorts of laws that kill profitability. For example, they must provide land line service -- by law. So, they have to spend untold amounts of money which perhaps could have gone to pay the people who are getting laid off. Or, perhaps they are getting laid off because their jobs are somehow tied to land lines, and in this day of cell service they are not needed.
As usual, look under the hood of an absurd economic situation and you find distortions of markets introduced by government. As for the executives, we should be asking the owners if they are worth it.
