wbjournal.com | Novermber 13, 2017 | Worcester Business Journal 3
Editor, Brad Kane,
bkane@wbjournal.com
News Editor, Grant Welker,
gwelker@wbjournal.com (Real estate,
higher education)
Staff Writers
Zachary Comeau,
zcomeau@wbjournal.com
(Manufacturing)
Emily Micucci,
emicucci@wbjournal.com (Health care)
Contributors
Susan Shalhoub
Livia Gershon
Research Director,
Stephanie Meagher,
smeagher@nebusinessmedia.com
Research Assistant, Heide Martin,
hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com
Production Director, Kira Beaudoin,
kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com
Associate Art Director,
Mitchell Hayes,
mhayes@wbjournal.com
Senior Accounts Manager
Matt Majikas,
mmajikas@wbjournal.com
Custom Publishing Project Manager
Christine Juetten,
cjuetten@wbjournal.com
Senior Special Accounts Manager
Mary Lynn Bosiak,
mlbosiak@wbjournal.com
Marketing & Events Manager
Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com
COO, Mary Rogers,
mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Manager, Valerie Clark,
vclark@nebusinessmedia.com
Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers,
rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com
Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel,
rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
Human Resources, Jill Coran,
jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com
Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton
pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com
Associate Publisher, Mark Murray
mmurray@wbjournal.com
President, Joseph Zwiebel
jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com
I
n 2016, Framingham retailer par-
ent company TJX Cos. paid $40
million to two employees: CEO
Ernie Herrman received $20.2 mil-
lion and former CEO Carol
Meyrowitz received $19.6 million.
While I understand leadership talent is
hard to find, especially for a company
with $33 billion in revenue, that amount
to only two people rivals the entire
annual budgets of probably 90 percent of
companies in Central Massachusetts.
Even though the bulk of Herrman's and
Meyrowitz's compensation came from
stock awards and not direct payroll,
those options are not available to the
typical TJX employee, who makes only a
fraction of the amount of the company's
CEO and former CEO.
I have no doubt Herrman is a valuable
member of the TJX machine, but is his
contribution nearly 900 times greater
than an employee making minimum
wage at one of TJX's stores?
This is not to pick on TJX, as this level
of total compensation for a handful of
top-level companies is quite common.
Check out the list of highest-paid execu-
tives in Central Massachusetts on page 17.
All employees should negotiate the
best salary they can achieve, based on
their talent, contributions and the com-
pany's revenues. Yet, a certain privilege
seems to be granted to the top earners,
which is a significant reason the wealthi-
est 1 percent of Americans earn more
than 20 percent of the nation's income;
and while the bottom 50 percent earn
less than 15 percent of America's money.
This privilege stems, in part, from a
flaw in the American Dream. As a society
and individuals, we are all striving to be
better and seem to accept as fact that if we
work hard in life, we can become part of
that 1 percent. This is a contributing fac-
tor to why executives are able to negotiate
ridiculous salaries and why tax reform
plans targeted at saving the most money
for the rich gain broad support – even
among those who will not only never
realize its benefits, but be significantly
harmed by the tax plan's new structure.
It is easy to look at a compensation list
of the highest-paid executives with both
Staring at the income inequality divide
Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is
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issues in April, July, September, November and
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A division of:
NEWS & ANALYSIS
DEPARTMENTS
4 Central Mass. In Brief
5 Flash Poll
12 Focus on Innovative Workplaces
17 The List: Highest-paid executives
18 Know How
19 On the Move
20 Photo Finish
21 Opinion
22 Shop Talk: Steven Strong,
Solar Design Associates
16 Bowditch going digital
The Worcester law firm has remade its
operations to move away from the legal
industry's paper dependency.
21 DiNatale energizes Fitchburg's
economy
Viewpoint columnist Salvatore Emma Jr.
says Fitchburg's new mayor is creating a
promising future for the North Worcester
County community.
I N T H I S I S S U E
Worcester Business Journal
WBJ
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astonishment and disbelief, but I feel anger.
I see a handful of people making more
money than nearly all their employees will
earn in their lifetimes, and those high sala-
ries are taking wealth away from others,
including those employees.
- Brad Kane, editor
W
