George Vecchione – RI Future

Jo-Ann Gesterling, a fast food worker, and George Vecchione, a former CEO, have both recently garnered some attention for their respective salaries.

In 2011, Vecchione made $7.88 million as the chief executive of Lifespan, a WPRI investigation revealed recently. Meanwhile, Gesterling helped organize a protest at the Wendy’s in Warwick where she works in hopes of calling the media’s attention to her hourly wage of $8.20 an hour. In other words, Vecchione made almost twice as much in one day (~$30,300) as Gesterling will make all year (~$17,000).

	hourly	weekly	monthly	annually
George Vecchione	$3,788.45	$151,538	$656,667	$7,880,000
Jo-Ann Gesterling	$8.20	$328	$1,421	$17,056

But perhaps it is unfair to compare a free enterprise fast food economy with that of a non-profit, regulated for consumer health. So instead let’s use Wendy’s internal pay grades. At $16.5 million in 2011, CEO Roland Smith made more than twice running Wendy’s as Vecchione made leading Lifespan. Here’s how his salary compares to Gesterling’s:

	hourly	weekly	monthly	annually
Roland Smith	$7,932.68	$317,307	$1,375,000	$16,500,000
Jo-Ann Gesterling	$8.20	$328	$1,421	$17,056

Hospital employees are furious that Lifespan CEO George Vecchione made almost $8 million in 2011 the same year management asked labor to forgo already-agreed upon raises because of the struggling economy.

“At the same time hospital administrators were demanding caregivers do more with less, the executive board of Lifespan was authorizing a gluttonous golden parachute that would make even the most brazen Wall Street executive blush,” said Helene Macedo, president of the labor union that represents Lifespan employees, in a press release. “This sweetheart deal is nothing less than outrageous, and every Rhode Islander who cares about quality, affordable health care should be angry by Lifespan’s arrogance.”

Vecchoine was paid a total of $7.8 million in 2011, including a $4.4 million retirement bonus, according to a startling news report by WPRI last night. In July, WPRI reported that revenue was down by 2 percent at Lifespan, which it used to justify a 3 percent decrease in expenses.

Unionized hospital employees and other progressives quickly denounced the revelation.

“We believe that people should be fairly compensated, but this extravagance goes far beyond what any reasonable or responsible non-profit organization should afford, and further demonstrates the executive management’s misplaced priorities,” Macedo said. “It is our hope that the General Assembly will again give serious consideration to legislation that would appropriately curtail these types of lavish deals that sacrifice quality of care for strengthening the ‘one percent.’”

Meanwhile conservatives defended Vecchoine’s lavish salary structure. Justin Katz, of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity, blamed government regulation and former RI GOP chairman Giovanni Cicione blamed “leftist economic policies.”

Tag: George Vecchione

George Vecchione needs to meet Jo-Ann Gesterling

Life at Lifespan: CEO makes $8 million, nurses told no raises