Lobbyists on K St. paid like CEOs on Wall St.

Top Execs' Compensation Doesn't Stop With Salary

Most top earners receive deferred compensation and bonuses, not just base salaries.

 

Most of the lobbyists  listed below received deferred compensation and bonuses in addition to their base salaries (just like corporate CEOs do). They didn't get all of that money in their weekly paychecks.

Like the private sector, trade associations (lobbyists) have been tying overall compensation to incentive pay and other performance-related benefits. That incentive in the private sector usually comes in the form of stock options, a tool that isn't available to "nonprofits". Instead, associations use bonuses and deferred compensation that vest over time. Both can be withheld if an executive's performance falls short.

If a lobbyist can get the desired legislation passed through Congress that's favorable to corporations, the lobbyist will get a bonus.

"This is how nonprofits can be competitive," said Charles Quatt, founder of Quatt Associates, a management consulting firm. "The incentives make up for the other income a trade association executive might have gotten in the form of equity if he or she had taken a job at a publicly traded company instead."

Bonuses at some of the biggest trade associations now average 35 percent of an executive's base pay and can be 50 percent "or higher," Quatt said.

Example: Business Roundtable President John Castellani's base compensation was $689,584, and he received a bonus of $750,000 and deferred compensation totaling $4.1 million, including retirement and other benefits. 

Billy Tauzin, before departing the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, had a base salary of $2.06 million, a bonus of $692,875, and total deferred and other compensation of $2.26 million. 

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and Thomas Donohue received the largest bonus of the Top 25: $2.55 million. His base pay was $1.09 million, and his deferred compensation totaled $136,697. (No, it is not an agency of the United States government, as some people believe...it's a lobbying group.)

An important caveat when it comes to deferred compensation is that the amount must be reported to the Internal Revenue Service as part of an executive's overall pay, even if the money is vested over several years. When the executive finally collects the entire deferred compensation package, it's taxed as capital gains, rather that regular income.

Castellani, asked how he feels about his salary, said: "I don't determine my compensation; my board does. It was really their judgment as to whether I am doing a good job or not."

Many organizations also give their executives so-called golden parachutes when they leave. That money can make a CEO's pay exceptionally high. For example, Marc Lackritz, the now-retired head of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, received a $4.2 million cash distribution when he left the Wall Street lobbying group. His total compensation without that payout was $2.6 million.

Highest-Paid Lobbyists* (Who Weren't CEOs)

Lobbyist	Title	Firm	Compen- sation
Leigh Ann Pusey1	Senior v.p., COO	American Insurance Association	$1,158,156
Richard Pollack	Executive v.p., advocacy and public policy	American Hospital Association	$1,153,202
Bruce Josten	Executive v.p.	U.S. Chamber of Commerce	$1,139,290
Todd Hauptli	Senior executive v.p.	American Association of Airport Executives	$1,009,962
Rick Shelby	Executive v.p., public affairs	American Gas Assocation	$906,643
Dan Danner2	Executive v.p.	NFIB	$831,279
James Ford3	Director of government affairs	American Petroleum Institute	$813,625
Alexander Flint	Senior v.p., government affairs	Nuclear Energy Institute	$788,042
John Dalton	President, housing policy council	Financial Services Roundtable	$765,423
Regina Hopper4	Executive v.p.	U.S. Telecom Association	$755,837

 
*Saleries from 2008.
1Now president and of AIA.
2Now president and of NFIB.
3No longer works for API.
4Now president and of America's Natural Gas Alliance.

The Top 25 Current And Former Executives

These are the highest-paid leaders of Washington's biggest trade associations, professional societies, think tanks, and interest groups. The first list includes chief executives current as of March 30, 2010.

Current Executives

	Name	Title	Association	Total Compensation1
1	John J. Castellani	president	Business Roundtable	$5,566,105
2	Billy Tauzin	president,	PhRMA	$4,476,157
3	Scott Serota	president,	Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association	$3,993,225
4	Robert D. Somerville	chairman,	American Bureau of Shipping	$3,970,948
5	Thomas J. Donohue	president,	U.S. Chamber of Commerce	$3,777,092
6	Frank Keating	president,	American Council of Life Insurers	$2,933,527
7	Charles H. Dallara	managing director	Institute of International Finance	$2,664,025
8	Thomas R. Kuhn	president	Edison Electric Institute	$2,549,956
9	Kyle McSlarrow	president,	National Cable and Telecommunications Association	$2,451,440
10	Charles N. Kahn, III	president,	Federation of American Hospitals	$2,334,770
11	Edward L. Yingling	president,	American Bankers Association	$2,291,462
12	Peter H. Cressy	president,	Distilled Spirits Council of the United States	$2,218,422
13	John M. Damgard	president	Futures Industry Association	$2,143,465
14	Frank J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.	president,	American Gaming Association	$2,080,581
15	Richard Umbdenstock	president,	American Hospital Association	$2,075,344
16	Mitch Bainwol	president,	Recording Industry Association of America	$2,033,072
17	Timothy Ryan2	president,	Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association	$2,021,141
18	Glenn English		National Rural Electric Cooperative Association	$1,960,741
19	Karen Ignagni	president	America's Health Insurance Plans	$1,941,471
20	Steven Specker	president,	Electric Power Research Institute	$1,908,163
21	Tracy Mullin	president,	National Retail Federation	$1,858,577
22	Steve Anderson	president,	National Association of Chain Drug Stores	$1,834,074
23	Daniel A. Mica	president,	Credit Union National Association	$1,817,577
24	Gary Shapiro	president,	Consumer Electronics Association	$1,767,205
25	Steve Miller	president,	American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity	$1,735,639

1Includes deferred compensation, benefits, and bonuses.
2Started in February 2008.

 

Former Executives - This list includes former executives who received compensation during the most recent reporting period.

	Name	Title	Association	Total Compensation1
1	Marc Lackritz	former president,	Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association	$6,761,697
2	Frank L. Bowman	former president,	Nuclear Energy Institute	$3,003,348
3	Marc F. Racicot	former president,	American Insurance Association	$2,882,402
4	Byron M. Cavaney	former president,	American Petroleum Institute	$2,694,867
5	Eugene Upshaw	former executive director	National Football League Players Association	$2,510,301
6	Susan Meisinger	former president,	Society for Human Resource Management	$2,315,416
7	Frederick Meister	former president,	Distilled Spirits Council of the United States	$1,884,854
8	Pamela G. Bailey2	former president,	Personal Care Products Council	$1,808,932
9	Myles N. Brand	former president	National Collegiate Athletic Association	$1,721,813
10	William T. Archey	former president,	TechAmerica (formerly AeA)	$1,648,324
11	Kenneth Stern	former	National Public Radio	$1,577,234
12	Andrew Sharkey	former president,	American Iron and Steel Institute	$1,554,863
13	Philip B. Boyer	former president	Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association	$1,549,245
14	Jordan J. Cohen	Former president	Association of American Medical Colleges	$1,501,708
15	Jonathan L. Kempner	former president,	Mortgage Bankers Association	$1,393,150
16	Daniel Glickman3	former	Motion Picture Association of America	$1,363,806
17	Jack N. Gerard4	former president,	American Chemistry Council	$1,346,467
18	James B. Bramson	former executive director	American Dental Association	$1,151,371
19	M. Cass Wheeler	former	American Heart Association	$1,142,569
20	Todd A. Stottlemyer	former president,	National Federation of Independent Business	$1,136,239
21	John A. Venator	former president,	CompTIA	$1,071,525
22	William D. Novelli	former	AARP	$1,005,380
23	Calvin Dooley5	former president,	Grocery Manufacturers Association	$871,458
24	John Sofranko	former executive director	American Institute of Chemical Engineers	$846,196
25	John A. Greco	former president,	Direct Marketing Association	$838,528

1Includes deferred compensation, benefits, and bonuses.
2Now president and of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
3Now president of Refugees International.
4Now president and of the American Petroleum Institute.
5Now president and of the American Chemistry Council.

 

• The Envy List

• These CEOS Are Gone But Not Forgotten

• 514 Top-Paid Executives

 

Sourced from National Journal Group Inc.

The Watergate 600 New Hampshire Ave., NW Washington, DC 20037 

First posted Saturday, April 3, 2010

Low Corporate Taxes = Excessive CEO Salaries It doesn't matter what a corporation pays in taxes as compared to GDP, or how it's compared to any other index of measure (to skew the numbers), it's what they actually pay to the U.S. Treasury after loopholes (aka "deductions") that matters most. And for the last 25 years corporations have actually paid historically low taxes. While today some corporations may have paid the maximum rate of 35% (when it was over 50% in the 1950s), many others paid ZERO, with the average being only 18%. The same can be said for their CEOs and other high-income earners. While although the top bracket is also almost historically low (at 35%, when it was once over 90%), what they actually pay is nearer to 15% because the majority of their income is earned through capital gains. And because corporations have been paying a low effective corporate tax rate for decades, that didn't keep them from outsourcing jobs overseas for cheap labor, but rather, it did enable them to pay very excessive CEO salaries...who only mostly pay 15% in federal income taxes on their capital gains.