I was reading an article at Yahoo! Finance from earlier this week about executive perks, and I have to say, I think I want to be a CEO when I grow up!

There’s been a lot of speculation and frustration about what exactly a CEO does all day long, and how they can justify their egregious salaries and benefit packages, particularly in the face of layoffs and bankruptcies. Well, you can read the Yahoo! article for some of the nitty gritty details on the perks, but there’s one in particular I want to talk about because this guy is now my hero.

Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric for about twenty years, is well known as one of the best CEOs GE has ever seen. In fact, he’s been credited as one of the best chief executives ever. But, even more impressive then his executive skills are his accomplished negotiation skills. This guy negotiated one hell of a retirement package. Let’s look at the rundown, shall we?

• Access to the GE aircraft for unlimited personal use and for business travel

• Exclusive rights to a furnished New York City apartment that went for roughly $50k a month in rent and had a resale value of more than $11 million

• Unlimited access to a chauffeured limousine driven by security professionals

• A leased Mercedes Benz

• Office space in both New York and Connecticut

• Professional estate and tax advice at no charge

• A personal assistant

• Private communications systems and networks within his home, all of which came with it’s own technical support

• Bodyguards for speaking events

• Top of the line security systems for all of his homes, and continued maintenance for those already in place

• Floor-level seats at New York Knicks games

• Courtside seats at the U.S. Open

• All costs associated with the New York apartment were apparently covered as well, including wine, food, laundry, and toiletries

After the divorce from his wife, he realized that he was facing a major public perception problem and quickly relinquished many of these perks; however, keep in mind, he had this in addition to what he was being paid in terms of retirement and pension funds. So basically, he was living the good life on GEs dime. Not a bad way to spend retirement on a personal level, but terribly costly for a huge corporation with other employees to consider.

Despite Welch’s giving up the majority of his perk’s in order to save face, he never once apologized for having them. Not that I blame him, really. He negotiated the contract and GE agreed. Why should he apologize for that? It’s not his fault they allowed it to happen.

At any rate, after reading this, I’ve decided I’m clearly in the wrong business. While I know that a chief executive’s job isn’t easy, I have to wonder what it is they do all day long that entitles them to a life of complete luxury, particularly after they’ve left a company. And some executives even work out perks known as golden coffins. These perks pay out pension and retirement benefits to the estate or the surviving heirs of a deceased executive for the remainder of their lives.

Like I said, I know it’s not an easy job and there are certainly skills that a company looks for, but for that kind of package, I’m willing to learn. Treat me to free money on the taxpayer’s dime….woohoo! I’m being cheeky, of course. I think executives are often overpaid and over-stimulated, fiscally speaking. These so-called “perks” that they receive are excessive and waste valuable assets that companies can be using to expand their business model, or keep their regular employees on the job. Personally, I couldn’t accept such perks when I knew we were laying people off. That’s just me, though.

What about you guys? Do you think executives are overpaid and over ‘perked?’ What would be a fair salary and benefit package for someone with the right skill set?

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