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Part-Time Government Employees Earn $160,000 a Year
It's good work if you can get it. The Washington Post reports that Fannie Mae announced its new 10-person board of directors today. The article reports the members will get $160,000 each, with the chairperson getting $250,000. Heading a committee can get you an additional $25,000.
The remarkable part of this story is that the Washington Post reporter could not find a single person who thought that paying part-time workers $160,000 a year was a bad idea. There is absolutely no one cited in this piece who raised a question about the compensation levels for the board.
Keep in mind that this is a newspaper that is absolutely apoplectic over autoworkers getting $27 an hour. If we assume that the board members on average will devote 500 hours a year to their board duties, this puts their pay rate at $320 an hour.
If this board kept the mortgage giant from doing really stupid things, like taking on risky real estate loans in the middle of a housing bubble, then perhaps they would be worth this pay. But none of the new members were especially visible among those warning of the housing bubble, and several board members are carryovers from the prior board, which apparently slept through the housing bubble and Fannie's collapse.
Given the amount of ink that the Post has devoted to the question of whether autoworkers at the Big Three are overpaid, it is incredible that this issue was never even raised in this piece.
--Dean Baker
COMMENTS (14)
Dean, thank you for all the work you do, including your continual pointing out of hypocricies like this. Happy Holidays!!
Posted by: EconDumbo | December 25, 2008 10:43 AM
YOUR TAXDOLLARS AT WORK. (parttime)
Posted by: Mike Meyer | December 25, 2008 11:48 AM
This is very scary, because people with these attitudes appear to be running too much of the show. The middle class will never return with these attitudes.
Posted by: Kathy | December 25, 2008 4:13 PM
I hope everyone hops on over to the WaPo site and comments on the article there.
Thanks for pointing this out, Dean.
Posted by: Mauimom | December 25, 2008 5:53 PM
The economic crisis is the GREATEST PONZI SCHEME IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.
Are those people out of the bleeping minds? For no one to raise any question about the compensation for part time work is baffling. I am livid to light almost daily. I would love to serve on this board - I'm not qualified, but I would love the earnings.
Posted by: Lisa Bradford | December 25, 2008 7:46 PM
that's because reporters who have the audacity to question executive pay will usually get a lecture about opportunity cost, along the lines of ...
"it's not high considering that it has to cover one's opportunity cost" ...
like being on all those other boards or whatever they do for obscene amounts of pay - it takes obscene pay to lure obscene pay
at which point said reporter is rendered speechless and embarrassed into never raising the question again ...
and scurrys off to write that they must be worth it because that's what they're getting paid - now that's investigative reporting
Posted by: barry payne | December 25, 2008 7:54 PM
Interesting just about the same salary as Rahm Emanual recieved form Fannie before he recieved the 50K in campaign funds.
Posted by: Mike Mathea | December 25, 2008 8:01 PM
I agree with Lisa, except I think almost anyone could do a better job than the people they have. And I'd be willing to head up a committee of the board for free.
Posted by: PeonInChief | December 25, 2008 8:19 PM
"Given the amount of ink that the Post has devoted to the question of whether autoworkers at the Big Three are overpaid, it is incredible that this issue was never even raised in this piece."
--Dean Baker
Dear Mr Baker,
you have to understand that, for the bosses, any worker is always overpaid, whatever his salary, and that any boss his always underpaid, whatever his revenue.
So, the revenues of fhe bosses have to always go up, and the revenues of the workers have to always go down, whatever the efficiency of the ones or the others.
It is a basic principle of economics ...
.
for the bosses !
Posted by: Gerry Flaychy | December 25, 2008 8:22 PM
There is only one exception I know: Henry Ford.
Posted by: Gerry Flaychy | December 25, 2008 8:30 PM
most Board's member don't even approache 500 hours per year
Posted by: Andrew Fly | December 26, 2008 10:49 AM
Overpaying thousands of auto workers for decades would be a much bigger problem than overpaying a dozen people for a few years. So yeah, I would expect these two problems to be reflected differently in the press.
Posted by: duckhawk | December 26, 2008 12:47 PM
duckhawk: I see the difference as MY TAXDOLLAR paying excessively for partime work and some customer "rightfully" paying for the labor cost of a product that customer is buying. I seem to have NO choice in MY TAX purchace whereas said customer can go elsewhere to spend his/her money.
Posted by: Mike Meyer | December 26, 2008 6:00 PM
What do you have to do to not get hired in the business world? You can preside over the total collapse of your company as you twiddled your thumbs on the board, then get rehired to work your magic again on the same board after the American Tax Payer subsidizes your failure!! I should have gotten an MBA.
Funny how all the free market economists are so pleased with failure when it is their own kind on the chopping block!
Posted by: Colleen | December 26, 2008 9:03 PM