Good Day to you All.
 
I would like to know the ratio of the top FIVE earners to the lowest
earner/s in the following US organisations:

- Marriott Hotels
- Disney
- Home Depot
- Wal-Mart
- IBM
- Microsoft
- Office Depot
- Citicorp
- Exxon
- Ford Car Company
- Boeing
- Dell Computers
- US Federal Government
- State Government of New York
- State Gevernment of Texas
- State Government of California
- State Government of Alaska
- State Government of Montana
- State Government of Louisana
- State Government of Mississippi

And (before you ask) some clarifications:

1. Please name the 5 top earners
2. Only consider those resident IN the US (i.e. do not consider ANY overseas 
   staff in the calculations)
3. When considering the lowest paid staff for each of the organisations use 
   reasonable judgement (minimum wage laws may make it easy to come up with 
   a good figure)
4. Include ALL reasonable compensation (Stock options bonus's AND for hotel 
   waiters and governers and presidents factor in the fact that they may be 
   receiving free board and food. Also some people get free transportation to 
   and from work )
5. Make reasonable adjustments for weekly hours worked (i.e. an hourly paid  
   employee of Home Depot may work 35 hours while executives in Home 
   Depot may work 60 hours a week) However Attendance at social functions do 
   not count as extra hours worked (e.g. State dinners organised by the  
   WH)               
   
   Yours Faithfully
   
   DPRK007

   Please note I was going to include G00gle but of course that would make it 
   an illegal question and I would NEVER ask an illegal question :-)

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Clarification of Question by dprk007-ga on 08 Oct 2006 12:37 PDT

To be honest I did not think the GARs would be tripping over each
other to answer this question.

I do think though my price is fair and ALL the information is out
there to answer the question.

Anyone like to take a go at it????

DPRK007

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Clarification of Question by dprk007-ga on 11 Oct 2006 19:10 PDT

One GAR has declined to answer my question. is anyone else interested?
(I have raised the value of my question)

Regards

DPRK007

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Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 17 Oct 2006 14:01 PDT

Hello dprk007-ga,

I think the chances of you getting an answer to this question as posed
are slim to none. It's really 20 research projects and no researcher
is going to make the bet that they can find all of the information
because the odds are very high that some  of the information is not
avaialable at all.

I suggest that you close this question and post a separate new
question for each of the companies and government entitities you're
interested in. I recommend a minimum price of $20 each for these
questions. This way you have a chance of attracting multiple
researchers to work on your project at the same time and the odds of
getting at least a partial answer would be greatly improved.

Good luck.

~ czh ~

Since you asked, I'll offer an opinion. No, I won't try the question.
The information is out there, but it would take an awful long time to
dig it all up.

You want names and total compensation packages for 20 entities. To
find this data would require sorting through SEC filings for most of
the companies. That could take 30 minutes-plus per company. For the
states, the issue is more problematic. I believe most states offer the
salary information, but it is not necessarily available on the
Internet. In some cases, you might have to go to the statehouse to get
it. The stuff on the Internet is likely to be buried in many cases,
requiring a long, tedious search through the state's Web site.

Even if everything was available on the Internet and I got incredibly
lucky with my searches, I can't see getting all this data in less than
8 hours, and 12 to 15 is probably more like it.

As such, your $65 isn't really an appealing sum for the volume of
research you require. If you raise the price to $200, someone with a
lot of time on their hands might be willing to try it.

Vercingatorix

P.S. And since we're not allowed to provide much in the way of
personal information about people, your question is most likely
against the rules in any case.

vercingatorix

Thanks for your comments. Here are some of my observations:

- Regarding your comment about personal information my reaction is BULL!
  All the individuals involved (Federal and State Politicians and high
ranking executives in publically traded corporations) have chosen
careers where their lives are no longer private. Their compensation is
in the public domain as of course it should be as they are fully
accountable to their voters,taxpayers and shareholders.

- regarding the price for this question.

You are saying that if i raise the price of the question to $200.00
that even then GARs would be reluctant to answer my question as they
are still making too little money. However as that is the maximum
there is not a lot I can do about it. Also i see some questions
answered for only $2 where the researcher must have spent hours on it.
I cannot argue that what a GAR makes
is not great. If you think it is unfair you should bring it up with
your employer. Considering some of the other answers for less money, I
believe my
 price is fair.

Finally I think this would make a very interesting project.

DPRK007

Forbes has a web site that will give you compensation for management
of companies. I think the president is by law paid more that any civil
service employee in the federal government, but they can pay
contractors more. In state governments University professors 
sometimes make the most, so it is harder to answer. The lowest paid is
usually the minimum wage. If you want documented answers, it is a lot
of work. Getting a gereral idea, you can do yourself in a couple
hours.