{"id":29483,"date":"2018-03-22T18:59:52","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T18:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/03\/22\/on-exec-compensation-sen-sanders-is-comparing-apples-and-oranges\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:23:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:23:29","slug":"on-exec-compensation-sen-sanders-is-comparing-apples-and-oranges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/industry\/2018\/03\/22\/on-exec-compensation-sen-sanders-is-comparing-apples-and-oranges\/","title":{"rendered":"On exec compensation, Sen. Sanders is comparing apples and oranges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. secretary of defense makes roughly $200,000 a year, while the CEOs of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon make more than $20 million. There is an element of absurdity to that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then you consider that Lockheed\u2019s Marillyn Hewson and Raytheon\u2019s Tom Kennedy are not an anomaly. Their counterparts at General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Boeing \u2014 all top-tier defense companies \u2014 pay their CEOs total compensation that falls in that ballpark, albeit a bit less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when you hear Sen. Bernie Sanders take aim at the defense industry<\/a>, asking Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to address \u201cthe excessive compensation of defense contractors,\u201d it seems reasonable. In the words of Sanders, who ran for president in 2016 attacking the vast earnings at the top of corporate America, half of the Pentagon\u2019s budget goes directly into the hands of contractors. And of that amount, one-third, or about $100 billion, goes to the top-five contractors in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Sanders put it during a Senate Budget Committee hearing earlier this month, Lockheed is \u201cfor all intent and purposes, a government agency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But actually it\u2019s not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is, these are publicly traded companies. To compare the compensation of executives to that of Cabinet-level secretaries is apples to oranges. While it may be a hard pill for some to swallow, executive compensation of defense companies is reflective of Wall Street, of the corporate market as a whole, because that is the talent pool they are tapping. <\/p>\n\n\n\t