Last year was a time for belt-tightening, and workers felt it in any number of ways. If you were really unlucky, your job might have been axed; short of that, you might have had your benefits cut and even seen the free coffee disappear from the break room.
Needless to say, the pain was felt equally across the board, from night-shift janitor to CEO.
Or, uh . . . not.
For evidence of the latter, look no further than the end-of-the-year proxy statements corporations file with the Securities and Exchange Commission each spring. Veteran corporate compensation expert Frank Glassner did, and he reports that as the economy withered and pink slips flew like confetti, lavish executive perks were alive and well.
Take, for example, the $2 million doled out to Martha Stewart for upkeep of her personal properties. Or the more than $500,000 Steve Wynn’s company paid to rent him a pair of villas at a golf club, apparently figuring that the Vegas kingpin shouldn’t have to cover it on the $7 million he raked in last year. Oh, and the villas are owned by Wynn’s own company.
“I’m stunned to see these types of things being offered,” says Glassner, the CEO of the executive compensation consultancy Veritas. While many companies have gotten the memo and scaled back on lavish executive perks in the face of growing public scrutiny — as Glassner has long advised his clients to do — a suprising number haven’t gotten the memo, he says.
And in the current climate of cutbacks, “It’s akin to putting on a pair of red flannel pajamas and running through a herd of angry bulls,” he says. “The message is: Do as we say and not as we do.”
For Memorial Day reading, herewith are some highlights from Glassner’s executive perk “hit parade.” Hope all @work readers have the day off — with pay.
Charity begins at home
We haven’t gotten an invite to stroll the grounds at Martha Stewart’s compound in upstate Bedford recently, but we’ve no doubt they’re impeccably manicured.
At least they ought to be. The homemaking honcho’s company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, paid a property management firm a cool $2 million last year to “maintain, landscape and garden” Stewart’s properties.
Call it a literal hedge fund.
All that green is needed to maintain the greenery “in a manner consistent with past practices,” according to company filings. What exactly those practices are isn’t spelled out, notes Glassner. “But judging by the price tag,” he quips, “it seems like she may have lived at Versailles.”
SKY’s the limit
The award for New York City’s most high-flying exec goes to media tycoon Barry Diller, a man whose net worth Forbes recently put at $1.2 billion.
The top man at InterActiveCorp and Expedia had his companies pay over $1.6 million for his travel in 2009 — and that’s just his personal travel, business tripping not included.
That adds up to over $4,600 for personal flights every day of the year, notes Glassner. We’re not sure where he’s going on vacation, but it’s a safe bet he’s not flying coach.
Taken for a ride
Michael Saylor, the headman of the Northern Virginia-based MicroStrategy, would rather be driven, thank you. And he does it quite a lot, apparently. Not only did the software-development firm pay over $125,000 for limousine, sedan and other driving services for Saylor, they ponied up an additional $57,800 for “alternative car services,” involving vehicles not owned by the company.
One can only hope the company is getting some good mileage out of its 35-year-old CEO, who earned notoriety for losing billions in the dot-com bust of 2000.
Protection racket
If anyone is out to get CEO Sheldon Adelson, they’re not going to have an easy time of it. Not as long as his company, Las Vegas Sands, continues to pay over $2.4 million a year for his and his family’s personal protection. That was the tally last year — a sum that could hire a small army. Or even a not-so-small one.
Prime mover
It’s a fact that movers are expensive. But maybe Wal-Mart vp Brian Cornell should have gotten a few more bids for his move to the retail giant’s hometown of Bentonville, Ark., that’s all we’re saying. As it is, the company covered his moving and home-resale losses to the tune of $1,718,225 — and Cornell was only moving from Texas, 350 miles away. Wal-Mart also ate the taxes he’d have to pay on the compensation, notes Glassner — a common way companies funnel even more loot to top execs.
Adding it up
Speaking of taxes, titans of business don’t tend to use the EZ form at income tax time, so preparing their returns can be a big job. Really, really big in the case of oilman Ray Irani, apparently. The CEO and chairman of Occidental Petroleum got $391,000 in tax preparation and financial planning benefits last year. Of course, there are a lot of high numbers to add up.
chris.erikson@nypost.com