Big Bank CEO Who Makes $23 Million Says Press Should Stop Focusing On Bank Compensation... Because Reporters Are Overpaid?

Journalism

from the i'm-rubber-you're-glue dept

Wed, Feb 29th 2012 12:42pm — Mike Masnick

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, who made approximately $23 million last year, apparently doesn't like the press picking on the salaries at big banks like his. So, he's telling them that they're the ones who are overpaid. To be fair, the context is that he's mocking reporters for focusing on the compensation ratio statistic that some have brought up in questioning how much banks pay their employees, by noting that the same ratio -- which he rightfully calls a "stupid ratio" -- doesn't necessarily look good for the newspaper industry either. Of course, most journalists just buzz right by that context and point out how ridiculous it looks for Dimon to complain about how much journalists make, coming from where he's sitting:

Dimon himself took home roughly $23 million in 2011, about the same as the year before, according to Bloomberg. Compare that to newspaper reporters, who earn an average salary of $43,780 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or between $20,000 and $60,000 per year according to Payscale.

For fun, let's just compare a bit more. The average reporter at The New York Times earns about $93,000 per year, according to Glassdoor.com. The New York Times Company reported an operating profit of $56.7 million in 2011.

Dimon's salary not only dwarfs that of us media-folk; he's also making millions more than most of his employees. The average JPMorgan employee made $341,552 last year, according to Bloomberg News.

The key point, here, is really that if you're trying to convince the press to stop focusing on stories about reasonable employee pay, you probably should not then directly state that their pay is "just damned outrageous," while then defending bank employee payments by saying, "We are going to pay competitively.... We need top talent, you cannot run this business on second-rate talent." The implication that the press gets from that -- perhaps on purpose -- is that the media shouldn't pay competitively, doesn't need top talent, and can run its business on second-rate talent. Some might argue that's already the case... but it's unlikely to get those "second-rate" reporters to drop the issue...

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Filed Under: banks, compensation, jamie dimon, media, press, revenue, salaries

31 Comments

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fogbugzd (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 12:54pm

The ubber-wealthy are completely out of touch.

Fortunately the super-rich are not lonely because they have a club that includes several Nascar team owners. Mitt Romney is the current president of the club which traces its origins back to its founder, Marie Antoinette. The club is currently considering changing its motto to "Let them drive two Cadillacs."
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Biff, 29 Feb 2012 @ 12:54pm

Good God
If Jamie Dimon and the legion of investment banking employees are considered top talent this country is royally fu*ked. The ONLY things they are top at is making bad decisions and finding new ways to dip their hands in the till.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Feb 2012 @ 12:59pm

I never believe when they say "we pay a lot of money to our CEOs because of their talent" take in consideration Leo Apotheker he was gonna sink HP to the bottom, and for that he got paid a 13 million bonus, if I'm not mistaken.
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:00pm

Holy Jebus!
If I made that much for only 1 year it would be the end of my present financial woes--I'd pay off my every debt and have plenty of ca$h for hookers & blow... (that's just an example, I actually have never done the whole 'hookers & blow' thing, can't afford it. ;)
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halley (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:01pm

As the saying goes, "Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel."
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DCX2, 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:08pm

Give me a break
Jamie Dimon made roughly $63k EVERY DAY last year (including weekends and holidays)

I design and build circuit boards, and I also write software for interfacing those boards to computers.

Are you SERIOUSLY telling me that Mr. Dimon is doing more than one year's worth of my work EVERY SINGLE DAY?
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techflaws.org (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:10pm

Re:
Talented bankers? Subprime crisis anyone?
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weneedhelp (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:15pm

Re: Re:
But but but their salaries are too big to let them fail.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:22pm

it never occurs to the mega rich that the world is full of underpaid people who struggle to keep their heads above water.

and they wonder why people are complaining about interest rates. how the hell can anyone person be paid so much? more to the point, how the hell can anyone spend it all before the next freight is being paid?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:23pm

Re: Good God
Actually, I'd argue that they're QUITE good at what they do. They manage to keep up this scam of a business running out in the open taking billions (trillions?) of dollars while it's public knowledge that they take from us, the gov't, and break every law they can (well, break, or pay to get rewritten) to do so. It takes a certain level of talent to be quite that evil, successfully.

They just don't do anything that's good for us, this country, or this world.
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RedMage, 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:29pm

Hey, be nice, big bankers need to be able to afford modern conveniences like gold-plated toilet seats and a thousand yachts.
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The eejit (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:33pm

Re: Holy Jebus!
I'd not just pay my debts, but my entire family's. And there's hundfreds of them!
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The eejit (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:33pm

Re: Give me a break
Of course! How else could he get paid to fuck up the world?
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 1:38pm

Re: Re: Holy Jebus!
Come to think of it, I'd then start my businesses offering all-you-can eat gigabit internet for a FAIR price and unlimited cellular for a FAIR price... at first state-wide, but then nation wide as I continually reinvest the profits into expanding my networks...
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ltlw0lf (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 2:03pm

Re: Re: Re: Holy Jebus!
Come to think of it, I'd then start my businesses offering all-you-can eat gigabit internet for a FAIR price and unlimited cellular for a FAIR price... at first state-wide, but then nation wide as I continually reinvest the profits into expanding my networks...

Your idea interests me. Where do I send my money? Maybe kickstarter?
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Josh in CharlotteNC (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 2:16pm

Re:
he was gonna sink HP to the bottom, and for that he got paid a 13 million bonus,

That's the problem as I see it. I don't have an issue with sky-high executive pay if the company is successful, expanding its business, treating its employees well and so on. I do have a problem when executive pay is high and the company is failing, not adapting to new markets, paying employees poorly or laying them off - and even worse are golden parachute clauses in contracts where a CEO can destroy the company and walk away with millions of dollars.
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Lord Binky, 29 Feb 2012 @ 2:37pm

Sounds like the reporters were pissed they didn't get taken out for a business meeting on a month long cruise ship trip. It also sounds like he could have afforded it and it would have been cheaper than the PR guy he'll need to buy now.
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 29 Feb 2012 @ 3:02pm

This:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120208/09521117704/do-differences-between-software-pirac y-media-piracy-matter.shtml#c474
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Roger Healey, 29 Feb 2012 @ 3:17pm

Dimon is right
Journalists are overpaid. They're useless. When they ask you questions, they always think they are being so clever, and they already have made up their minds before they even do the interview. If you give them some information that doesn't support their pre-determined thesis, they just leave it out of the story, but if you agree with their point, they print it. This has happened to me many times in my 20 years of dealing with the press, so I just don't talk to them anymore.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Feb 2012 @ 5:06pm

Any head of a company making millions upon millions of dollars while paying the 100s of entry level employees minimum wage and expecting them to be happy about it need the wake the fuck up. Without those 100s of entry level employees doing the shit jobs in the trenches, you wouldn't even have a company to rape for your millions.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 5:53pm

But things are so tough for them!!

and I'll just leave this here....

http://boingboing.net/2012/02/29/146495.html
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Steve (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 6:02pm

He's a financial rock star but he makes less than Rhianna
He runs a public company that is the largest bank in the U.S. with over 250,000 employees. For this he's compensated a little less than Robert Pattison of Twilight fame. What's wrong with this picture?
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TtfnJohn (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 8:22pm

t's unlikely to get those "second-rate" reporters to drop the issue
It's unlikely to get the reporters editors and publishers to drop the issue either.

Dimon just painted a large three circle roundel on his back. Journalism's version of the Streisand effect. ;-)
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 10:37pm

Re: He's a financial rock star but he makes less than Rhianna
He doesn't sparkle in sunlight?
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lucidrenegade (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 11:43pm

Re: Re:
Failed CEOs should get a golden shower, not a golden parachute.
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lucidrenegade (profile), 29 Feb 2012 @ 11:47pm

Re: Re: He's a financial rock star but he makes less than Rhianna
No, but his mother was a hamster and his father smelled of elderberries.
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Chargone (profile), 1 Mar 2012 @ 3:12am

Re: Re: Re:
... meh. forget gold.

wait...what colour does Napalm burn?
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Chargone (profile), 1 Mar 2012 @ 3:15am

Re: Re: Re: Holy Jebus!
you'd then lose it all to lawsuits and corrupt regulatory practices. daring to compete with monopolists who own the regulators doesn't end well unless you have some special edge.

(amusingly, we have a phone company that's started up comparatively recently(last few years) here, only does mobile so far as i can tell, seem to have used a similar bit of logic. they're Rapidly gaining customers at the expense of the old networks, AND were the only one to stay functional, if a bit funky, during the Christchurch Earthquake. (by funky i mean: you'd send a text and it would take an hour or so to turn up then show up three or four times over the course of the day. compaired to the other networks where it was 'try to send a text. your phone fails.'))
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Mike @ Toy Hauler, 8 Mar 2012 @ 4:57pm

Wow, I can't believe the balls on some people.
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