By Warner Todd Huston ——Bio and Archives--December 3, 2012
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Last year, the CEO of Wendy's took home $16.5 billion dollars while I barely scraped by on $16,000.The email then goes on to suggest that the fast food industry needs to be unionized so that -- oh, I don't know -- maybe so that guys like Mr. Williams can be the ones to take home " $16.5 billion dollars," or something? Yeah, we all understand that a burger flipper takes exactly the same skills as the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporation. It's just the same, of course. Whatever. But let's look at the claim of this "Mr. Williams" if he really exists. I sure seems a bit crazy that a fast food CEO "took home" $16.5 billion dollars! I mean, some whole countries don't make so much money. Why, it's an outrage. But, wait. $16.5 billion dollars! Really?? No, not even close. In the Forbes list of American CEOs, the current Wendy's chief, Emily J. Brolick, is listed with a salary of $338,462 annually and a total compensation package of $4.6 million. Not even a tiny bit close to the lie that the SEIU tried to pass off on its members and potential members. (The AP reported on it here) Brolick has only been onboard for a short time, so maybe" Joshua Williams" meant the previous CEO? Well, let's look. Former Wendy's CEO Roland Smith left the company in 2011. Before he did he "took home" slightly less than $16.5 billion. Instead, Mr. Smith "took home" a $11.4 million in severance pay. In 2010 he made a paltry $4.9 million. Gee, that seems a tad less than " $16.5 billion," doesn't it? The union clearly lied. As one of my friends said in an email, all these unions will do is turn the 99 cent menu into the $99 menu. It would be such a benefit to us all, wouldn't it?
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.