According to baseball and cultural lore, in 1932, in the midst of the Great Depression, a reporter asked Babe Ruth why he was being paid more than President Herbert Hoover, who would be voted out later that year. He asked if it was necessary.
Ruth, the New York Yankees slugger who changed baseball, earned an annual salary of $80,000 in 1930 and 1931. At the time, the president’s salary was just $75,000. The Yankees wanted to cut his salary for 1933, and reporters wanted to know Babe’s take on the contract dispute.
“What the hell does Hoover have to do with this?” Ruth is said to have replied. “I had a better year than him anyway.”
I was reminded of this last week when the Free Press reported on the salary packages of two of Detroit’s superstars on the same morning. First, automotive reporter Jamie Lareau reported that General Motors CEO Mary Barra’s total compensation in 2023 was $27,847,405. Within hours, Lions reporter Dave Burkett wrote about receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown’s new contract, estimated to make $28 million a year over the first three years, surpassing Barra by nose for the football.
So did St. Brown have a slightly better year than Barra?
Comparisons are not easy because there are no common metrics, such as St. Brown’s ability to surprise stock market analysts or Barra’s touchdown dance. It’s a frivolous curiosity on one level and a serious social problem on another.
what are they do What they have in common is a pay package full of commas and a complex way to count money that includes options, deferred compensation, bonuses, and more that 99% of people don’t even have to think about.
Detroit gathers in the NFL Draft;And showed it off to the world | Opinions
The amount paid to each of them in a single year is so high that a typical Michigan family would have to pay the state’s median household income of $68,505 for a single year’s compensation in the cities of Borough and St. Brown. It will take more than 408 years.
When we look at these salaries, we tend to ask obvious questions. “Why are we paying these people so much?” What on earth are they going to do with the money? Does this mean the Lions will win the Super Bowl? — are questions we really care about.
Perhaps our priorities are off. UAW President Sean Fein, who made just $228,872 last year, likely agrees. While Barra’s salary was reduced by 4% due to GM’s failure to meet its “shareholder value goals,” Barra’s salary received a 25% pay cut over four and a half years, leading to a better 2023 than Barra’s. Some might argue that they spent it.
But who wouldn’t be happy to even be paid $1.13 million, the difference between Barra’s 2022 and 2023 compensation?
In 1978, the average CEO salary was $1.5 million, about 25 times that of the average employee. In 2022, the Economic Policy Institute reported that “Top CEO compensation increased by 1,460.2% from 1978 to 2021 (adjusted for inflation).” Top CEO compensation increased about 37% faster than the stock market during this period, far outpacing the slower 18.1% annual compensation growth for the typical employee. ”
Detroit didn’t need it.Downtown bombing before NFL draft | Opinion
Which group of workers do you think continued to work?
Percentage-wise, professional athletes have fared well despite starting from a much lower base.
For example, the average NFL salary in 1977 was $55,000, while the average salary in early 2017 was $2.25 million. That’s great, but he only made one-sixth of the median CEO salary at the time. The NBA and Major League Baseball averages are even higher, with sports stars like Shohei Ohtani and Patrick Mahomes in the stratosphere as the highest-paid CEOs.
What’s there to do but shake your head, say that’s despicable, and root for the Lions?
Politicians talk about taxing high earners, but the money-driven capitalist culture has no intention of putting limits on salaries. One reason for this is that most of us mistakenly believe that we too can become incredibly rich.
Perhaps you can take comfort in knowing that Barra and St. Brown are simply continuing a Detroit – and American – tradition.
Tiger great Ty Cobb was the highest-paid player in baseball from 1916 to 1921, when his salary ranged from $20,000 to $25,000 to $390,000 today. Cobb retired wealthy and became an early investor in Coca-Cola, based in his home state of Georgia. United Motors then became part of GM. When he retired in 1928, his net worth was estimated at $12 million, which is equivalent to about $215 million today.
When Cobb retired, the GM was Alfred Sloan, whose salary was $561,311 in 1936, or about $12.5 million today.
The fact is, beyond our common disappointment with these eye-popping pay packages, most of us don’t seem to care until someone comes up short.
By the way, Tiger Javier Baez was one of my favorite baseball players during his time as a Cub, and I still have high hopes for him as his skills seem to be fading before my eyes, but he will be getting paid 2,450 this year. That’s ten thousand dollars.
Randy Essex is the editor of the Free Press. X Follow him at @randyessex.
