Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Doctoring the Profits

The Occupy movement got it more right than wrong. Whether it is on the top 1 percent or 5 percent is irrelevant – those groups are doing well. The rest of us – the 99 or 95 percent of individuals and households – have seen almost no real income growth in the last 40 years.

Based on adjusted 2009 dollars, the top 5 percent averaged $272,500; the mean income for all U.S. households was $60,100; the lowest 20 percent averaged $20,500. What family can live with any semblance of dignity, safety, or hope for their children’s future on this level of household income?

Maine Med is the fourth largest employer in the state, with more than 6,000 employees. It is the second largest nonprofit corporate entity in the state, with more than $1 billion in assets. Of the 23 largest nonprofit corporate entities 13 were hospitals or health-care providers, and the smallest of these had more than $100 million in assets. Of the 27 highest paid health-care professionals in the state, 25 were associated with one or another of these 13 hospitals/health-care providers; seven of the 25 were employed by Maine Med. Based on 2010 salary data, the average annual salary of these seven physicians or executives was just under $1 million. The annual salary for the top 27 professionals ran from $1.3 million to $636,000; the average salary was $856,000. Beyond these 27 people, one might ask how many hundreds of employees (at these 13 Maine non-profit hospitals) have annual salaries between $300,000 and $636,000? And how many are on salaries where they can barely exist.

From here

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