On one hand, we have workers fired for leaving early to attend an immigrants’ rights rally. Now make no mistake: most of us would lose our jobs if we walked in one fine morning and told the boss we were leaving 2 hours early unless there was a really outstanding reason. Particularly if a quarter of the employees likewise wanted to leave 2 hours early. In some ways it is just as simple as “they left the job and were fired.” But would they have been fired if instead of attending a political event, they were going to a Holy Week service at church? If they were at a big ball game? If they went to the wedding/funeral/hospital bed of a co-worker? All the same, there is the net effect of chilling dissent. There is some question about the immigration status of some of the individuals involved, but that brings us to another issue. Illegal workers have limited legal recourse against ill treatment by an employer. This situation is a bit stickier than most, but it is a no-brainer that the ability of working people to participate in political protests is limited by their ability to get time off. Doubly so if they will have a hard time obtaining a new job due to issues of immigration status, limited skills, or just plain old fashioned discrimination.
Way off on the other hand, we have CEO paychecks. Did you know that the CEO of Capitol One made almost a Quarter of a Billion with a B Dollars in 2005? What’s in your wallet indeed. And he was awarded this princely sum for shareholder returns of less than 3%. Harry Silverman of Cendant (you remember Cendant?) earned well over a hundred million dollars while shareholders lost over a fifth of their investment! It must be nice to get paid so handsomely to lose other people’s money. Be sure to click through to the main story to flesh out those numbers with more general statistics on CEO paychecks.
In the words of the Gershwins, “Nice work, if you can get it.” Oh, and if you happen to need 17 painters in the Seattle area, I bet I know where you can find some.