As Belts Tighten, College Chiefs' Pay Expands

(NEWSER) - Citigroup will raise salaries for investment bankers and traders as much as 50% to offset a steep falloff in bonus pay and keep the company’s compensation package competitive, Bloomberg reports. Other employees, like those in the consumer banking section, will receive smaller raises. Citi, which took $45 billion in federal bailout funds, also plans to offer its employees stock options to keep them on. More»

When taxpayers have to take a stake, CEOs should have to do the same

(NEWSER) - As taxpayers become stakeholders in the very firms that made this economic mess, it’s become easy to say that losing CEOs should be stripped of their salaries, writes Andrew Ross Sorkin in the New York Times. But driving out good CEOs is no way to rebuild the banking sector. So here’s an idea: When taxpayers invest in a firm, make executives invest in it as well, and on the same terms. More»

Bailed-out finance firms may cut compensation to silence critics

(NEWSER) - Top Wall Street execs are considering heading off public outrage by cutting their own pay, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. The big financial firms pay out billions in bonuses to their execs every year. They now fear a public relations disaster is looming as critics charge that the $125 billion bailout is effectively going towards pumping up the pay of the people behind the crisis. More»

Union proposal OK'd at annual meeting

(NEWSER) - Apple shareholders have approved a motion giving them some input into executive pay levels, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. "I hope it will help me with my $1 a year salary," quipped CEO Steve Jobs after the vote at the company's annual meeting—though Jobs bags millions of dollars worth of stock options and other perks on top of his token salary. More»

Matt Taibbi says bankers are still overpaid

(NEWSER) - Matt Taibbi was incredulous when he read a recent New York piece in which Wall Street denizens whined that Dodd-Frank was limiting their bonuses. "I watch what I spend," one banker lamented, "but my girlfriend likes to eat good food," which adds up fast. "Quelle horreur!" Taibbi quips in Rolling Stone , before shredding the argument. Actually, bank compensation is falling because of the European debt crisis. Bankers he knows are saying things like, "If the ECB doesn't come up with a Greek bailout package, I'm going to have to sell my children for dog food." And at some banks (like Goldman Sachs), bonuses are actually up relative to earnings. More»