Massey CEO Don Blankenship was escorted from the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine by West Virginia State Police after the January 2006 fire that killed two workers. AP photo.
This just in from The Associated Press:
The chairman and chief executive of coal miner Massey Energy Co. received compensation valued at $19.7 million in 2008, a 17 percent decrease from the previous year, according to an Associated Press analysis of data filed with regulators Tuesday.
The Richmond, Va.-based company paid Don L. Blankenship $1 million in base salary and a bonus of $300,000, the same as the previous year.
Blankenship, 59, also received a performance-based cash bonus of $6 million, up 15 percent year over year.
Furthermore, Blankenship received $457,129 in perks, including $198,890 for personal use of the company jet, $152,642 for housing and maintenance costs, and dividend payouts of $10,570 on restricted stock.
But the bulk of Blankenship’s compensation came in the form of stock- and option-based awards valued at $11.9 million when they were granted in 2008, down 29 percent from similar awards granted during the previous year.
However, the stock awards granted in 2008 are currently almost worthless due to a drop in the company’s share price since then. The exercise price on about $2.2 million worth of options is $19.50, above the stock’s Monday closing share price of $12.97.
The Associated Press compensation formula is designed to isolate the value the company’s board placed on the executive’s total compensation package during the last fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.
The calculations don’t include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executive’s compensation in the previous fiscal year.
According to Massey Energy’s filing, the compensation committee benchmarks its executive pay practices against a group of companies that includes Arch Coal Inc., El Paso Corp. and Steel Dynamics Inc.
The committee also has established a guideline for Blankenship to own shares having a value of five times his base salary in order to align his interests with those of shareholders.
In 2008, Massey earned $56.2 million or 68 cents per share, compared with $94.1 million, or $1.17 per share, the previous year. Last year’s results included a pre-tax litigation charge of $250.1 million.
The stock fell 61 percent in 2008 to end the year at $13.79.
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I don’t know about you, but I’m torn between being happy his total comp is down 17% and feeling outrage that he makes so much. Live it up while you can, Don. Hopefully it won’t last much longer!
seems an outrage that that man makes that kind of money and hundreds of men are laid off…not to mention that history will look at what Massey has done to the mountains as one of the greatest tragedys in history…
I think it is bull they are paying Don all of this money and all of these miners are losing there jobs. He will never have anything to worry about like the miners and the miners familys
Wow. This is so interesting. A few months ago, an author who wrote a book called, “Free Lunch,” spoke at WV State University. The book is about how huge corporations get rich off government subsidies at the expense of the little guy. Don Blankenship was in attendance. I wonder, does he consider himself a little guy? Poor, poor thing.
I just wanted to say I am not a Don Blankenship fan, although he has kept people from the tri-state area working for years and doesn’t pay the best wages in the coal industry. It is a shame that the average American has to pay for what the hoax of global warming(which has been changed by extreme environmentalists to climate change) is spreading: Loss of jobs, new levels of poverty, and absolute outrage in the coal industry. Every morning for the past week and a half, I have turned my FM radio on and have heard of workers being idled or laid off. There’s no secret that this green movement is causing this. I wish people would just get on the internet and look at California where this green movement started. The state couldn’t even afford to give back tax refund checks that are owed to them because they are broke. Yes, that’s what we want the US to be like. Being this is the case, we haven’t seen the worst of the economic crisis yet. I am a working surface coal miner and I am sure my days are numbered, but when there is no money in the state budge for paving roads, run water lines, build bridges, and keep up the state parks everyone should remember “going gree” is going to cost this great nation a lot more than it’s endured already.
He and Joe manchin have had their differences over the years, but when push comes to shove it appears they are both alike. They get an exorbitant salary for doing very little while the people that actually do the work get nothing! Thanks goodness economic times are bad…imagine what they would get paid if things were good.
Brandon’s idea that Massey has “kept tri-state people working for years” implies that the coal industry is WV’s main employer. This is absolutely not the case.
According to WORKFORCE West Virginia, in 2006, all mining operations in West Virginia employed only 45,963 people, or 5.8% of the total workforce. That number is slated to grow only 1.5% to 46,650 by 2016.
In contrast, the healthcare industry now employs 189,812 West Virginians, representing 24% of the total workforce. Hospitals alone account for 46,583 of those workers, and the rate of growth in the healthcare industry is projected to increase by 17.23% in the next eight years to 222,523, or 26.66% of the total workforce.
Clearly, the jobs of the future for West Virginians are in healthcare, not coal mining.
It’s times like these that make me glad I don’t have enough money to worry about it.
At least, Thanks to the rich, I don’t have to get use to tightening my belt.
I’m not sure who coined “climate change”, however, the term’s broad use and appeal in everyday discussion has Republican origins. (In that sense, it’s a little like the concept of cap and trade.)
Pollster Frank Luntz, who helped come up with “The Contract for America” in 1994, wrote a now (in)famous White House memo in 2003 telling Republicans how to talk about environmental issues. The memo advised substituting the term climate change for global warming because:
“Climate change is less frightening than global warming. As one participant noted, ‘climate change sounds like your going from Pittsburgh to Fort Lauderdale.’ While global warming has catastrophic communications attached to it, climate change sounds a more controllable and less emotional challenge”.
You can find the memo here:
http://www.ewg.org/files/LuntzResearch_environment.pdf
It’s interesting to note that Luntz now regrets some of his work on this memo. He believes climate change is a real problem.
Luntz probably won’t admit it, but my guess is that he also realizes his recommendation was, in a political sense, a poor one. “Climate change”, the broader term, correctly suggests complications with anthropomorphic emissions that extend beyond “global warming.” There is an interview with Luntz on Frontline here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/interviews/luntz.html
Opps (and more than a little embarrassing) — “anthropogenic” not anthropomorphic.
[...] No Shortage of Coal Cash for the CEO (AP) [...]
the 17%pay cut was a result of the drop in stock price. He didn’t take a cut…he caused the cut due to his arrogance and mismanagement. Check out Patriot Coal 1st qtr earnings today.