On Monday, April 29, 2019, Chase Bank’s twitter account posted this:
Unsurprisingly, I found this to be trash. I think it was incredibly tone deaf, particularly coming from a financial institution with outrageously paid executives and who contributed to the financial crisis when wages have been stagnant for the last 40 years.
JPMorgan Chase’s median employee made $78,923 in 2018 (page 75 of their latest proxy statement). That’s not too bad – roughly $39/hour. What about their executive team?
Per page 65 of the same proxy statement, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, made $30,033,745 in 2018. Their CEO-to-median employee pay ratio is reported as 1-to-381. Their other top executives, made $21M, $20M, $19M, and $14M.
And you know, I’m sure these executives know exactly what it’s like to manage personal finance on $78,923 a year.
THAT WAS SARCASM.
Jamie Dimon made their median employee’s salary IN LESS THAN A DAY.
I’m still working through this idea and want to research it more – the idea of how competitive it is to land an C-suite executive job at a Fortune 100 company. I think basic employment economics would suggest that such a high-paying job, where you could essentially work for one year and never have to work again (2% interest on $10M = $200K/year). But from what I can tell, when they look to fill these positions, there doesn’t appear to be a wide search for the best candidate, certainly not taking 250 resumes for one position, like other corporate positions.
But perhaps Mr. Dimon has shown particular skills and business acumen that would justify such a crazy compensation package. As I said in my first blog post, when you look at certain factors, it’s not difficult to justify kind of big numbers. Maybe Jamie really is that valuable. You know, as opposed to being the Chief Executive Officer when the firm suffered a loss that contributed to a nationwide recession and wage stagnation such that workers can’t really afford a cup of coffee or taxi. RIGHT?
Page 29 of JPMorgan Chase’s 2008 annual report. JPMorgan Chase wrote down (i.e., took a loss in) over $10,000,000,000 ($10 Billion) in mortgage-related positions, dropping their year-over-year profits by 66%. CEO at the time – Jamie Dimon. And yet, he still makes $30M a year.
Has JPMorgan and its shareholders ever looked at maybe finding someone who wouldn’t lose the company $10B. Do they would find someone who they could even get away with paying $7.5M (x100 the median employee)? I do.
Pay your people, just maybe not CEOs who lose $10B,
The Anxious, Amateur Economist
The Anxious, Amateur Economist 