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BY JIM FLINK

“Wall Street very concerned about a lot of things right now.  High on the list, and on the front page of this morning’s FT.  The rule requiring them to disclose the ratio between a CEO’s pay package and the average employee.” (CNBC)

A provision buried deep within the financial reform package passed by Congress — known as the Dodd-Frank bill — is forcing Wall Street CEOs to disclose how much money they’re making — when compared with the average worker.  Now, a public relations war is being waged over whether this is good or bad for the economy.

We’re analyzing coverage from CNBC, CNN, The Financial Times and the Columbia Journalism Review.

The Financial Times broke this story, and editor Francisco Guerrera appearing on CNBC characterizes the move by Congress as sneaky.

“You sneaked right at the last minute during those negotiations, those 21 hour negotiations of the Dodd-Frank bill.  It’s something that completely surprised the corporate America and Wall Street.  And now, they’re going to try to dilute it by lobbying very hard the SEC that has to write the rules.”

But CNN reports on why Congress felt it was necessary to require companies to disclose the heretofore private figures — especially now — in tight economic times.

“The $1,025,000 median salary of an S&P500 chief executive last year ... is 25 times the $40,174 that ... was paid to the average U.S. private sector employee. The chief executive's $7.5m median total pay package, including bonuses and stock options, is 187 times that average private sector pay...”

On the Financial Times own website, Evelyn Jorgenson interviews reporter Jean Eaglesham who says, lawyers and businesses have launched an offensive saying this will create bureaucratic red tape to produce numbers the companies don’t have.

Jorgenson: “You mentioned in your story that this may end up being a logistical nightmare for companies.  So are we now in a position that we have too much red tape in our drive for transparency. 

Eaglesham: "Well, that’s certainly what business is arguing.  Their concern is that, at the moment, they just don’t have the data to produce these figures, and the language in the act isn’t that clear.”

The Columbia Journalism Review laughs at the notion that companies would even make that argument, let alone that some media outlets would fall for it.

“So wait a stinkin’ minute. These people have gobs of PhDs calculating stuff like the probability of a flour beetle invasion and its effect on the price of wheat futures after a monsoon five months from now ... but they can’t figure out what the median salary is at their company and to divide that into the CEO’s pay? Gimme Excel and a couple of hours and I’ll do it for you.”

So what do you think of the new bill requiring more transparency over executive versus employee pay?  About time or is it irrelevant information?

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