Disgusting!! she might have been worth 20% of that number. Part of the real sickness in our country, called "cashing in".

$800K = salary of 8 nurses

Nurses who actually do really work- not BS their way through work

Golden Parachute? Definitely!!

There is so much wrong here on so many levels. It makes my blood boil.

What part of "unwavering support, ""open communication," and "transparency" explains why the board refused to give a reason for her termination? Sounds like the culture of the nursing staff had a shift alright, a sharp turn for the worse.

How do people like this sleep at night? Receiving a year's worth of pay for not working, while knowing how many children and adults have no health coverage at all?

People, you can thank your local Union, they negotiate wages in the back rooms. Just think how massive the pension and medical plans are going to cost the state. Why do you think all govt agencies are looking to increase there funds coming in. It's not because of inflation, but Union contracts that will ruin this state.

Down with all Unions!!!!!! Communist socialists, that have no idea what free market is, only thing they know is how to increase there dues to support ignorant social democrats that they control.

At least have surgeons match the salary that of the CEO of the hospital. They do the most precision-based pressured work.

If you blame the unions, your info is old and outdated. CEOs get their power through their personal connections with board members, not through unions. Unions are there to protect the regular folks. Here's an example: recent news article about a union that is trying to cap hospital CEO salaries and perks by taking it to the polls. Web Link

The last local "recent news article" re capping hospital CEO salaries was right here in Mountain View, when SEIU-UHW created a city ballot initiative to reduce this same CEO's pay. After its contract negotiations concluded successfully, the union abandoned its own ballot measure. A union steward admitted later "Truthfully, the measure was initially proposed as a bargaining chip in the negotiating process. We picked salaries because it was something that resonated with voters." (The union then distanced itself from such frankness.) Web Link Yet, although the very union that wrote it abandoned Measure M once its purpose had been served, not enough voters got the word; Measure M passed anyway (later struck down in county court as unconstitutional).

That was all after the union-decertification controversy (following a barely successful, controversially staged "closed-shop" vote making SEIU membership mandatory for many employees). Over 30% of the hospital's SEIU-UHW employees wrote in late 2011 that they "no longer desire to be represented by SEIU." One of them remarked '"What am I getting for my money? . . . I'm getting absolutely zero." [he] said he has been with the hospital for 25 years -- long before the union "forced" its way in about 10 years ago. Not much has changed since then, he said, adding that, as far as he can tell, the only thing the union is interested in is collecting dues.' Another complained 'the SEIU has created a "divisive" atmosphere at the hospital -- seeking to inspire an "us versus them" attitude at every turn. The union aims to keep its members fearful of the hospital administration, so they will remain loyal and pay their dues on time.' (The union filed actions seeking to quash this rank-and-file dissent before it could come to vote of the full membership.) Web Link

People who make less than hospital CEOs may *envy* the salary they see; they might promote that envy rhetorically, in Town Square comments, or to marshal support for a union; but armchair comments like "she might have been worth 20% of that number" reveal writers who know nothing about the subject. Nothing. They don't know what hospital CEOs actually do; they have no idea what the market is like for those skills.

For decades I've heard complaints like "that university president couldn't possibly be worth $XXX,XXX yearly" when, in any objective measure, they are worth it. The price of competent nonprofit CEOs is set by a market; good ones pay for themselves many times over, by fundraising and other skills.

If you want to complain about REAL extravagant expenditures on public employees, look to the infinitely greater sums lavished on public salaries and pension programs (by sweetheart legislative deals), even for highly paid senior workers like district attorneys. All represented by public-employee unions. That's what most unions in California are about today. Labor unions began as an answer to exploitative "company-town" industrial employment. Today, most California employees are far better treated; the vast majority don't need unions. The small minority of workers still unionized here tend to be in public-sector, tax-supported jobs. The source of their pay (the ultimate adversary against which employee unions plot their various gambits, support politicians, send their dark-money campaign mailings) is today the taxpayers -- you and me.

Actually the concept of more money entices much better candidates is absurd. What we need to attract is people who have a desire to make a hospital (or University) fulfill it's function, not people who want to feather their retirement lives at the expense of taxpayers and/or employees. I have a good friend who is President of a company in Germany who can't believe how "compensation" in the USA is almost totally irrational. Even if you consider an "executive" to be always busy, 5 days a week, that works out in this case to 2080 hours a year @about $385.00 an hour! What is actually being compensated here? Perhaps it is simply a case of unreasonable hope for the more money, the better the result. Not much evidence for that. The length of these noses stuck in the public trogh is is hard to calculate. It is truly an ignorant public that falsely believes that anyone is worth "compensation" at that level.

El Camino's nurses union, PRN, is an in-house union with no national affiliations. The negotiating team are all working nurses. PRN's negotiating team have been working on negotiating the new contract since early 2016 while taking care of patients in the ER, Critical Care, Woman's Health and on the Medical and Surgical Units. Dues are not paid to national or state-wide union. Not all unions are the same!

@UnionsToday - Oh heavens, how dare a union use a ballot measure to bargain for higher wages for their lowly employees and win. The nerve! As for your statement that the CEO's wages are set by the market, if you knew any corporate board members, you would know that's not true by a long shot. Here's the way it works: corporate executives are all on each other's boards, so if you vote for a sweet deal for this CEO, the CEO will be on your company's board and vote for a sweet deal for you right back. Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. It's better than being in a union, the rewards are greater and their exclusive "membership" makes their deals private and harder to critique. It's not a market, it's a monopoly on power.

There's no free market. There's no level playing field. We're dismantling the checks and balances on power as quickly as we can. It was not so long ago when our social contract said that the wealthiest leveraged more of the benefits of society, so they were obligated to give more back to society. Our wealthiest citizens fulfilled their obligations by paying a tax rate that was over 90%. Now they pay closer to 10%. Seems to me that if this is the new social contract, our impoverished society won't be worth living in, especially for the predators.

I think some of those commenting here need to stick to the relevant discussion about the article. This was not about unions, but about someone moving on and getting great rewards going out the door. I think we are rewarding those at the top way too well and not always recognizing that those working under their management are the real valuable people. Nothing will change about executive compensation in our free market society unless every single employer stops giving these great benefits and it would be naive to think that will happen. When our economy totally collapses we will see an end to such lavish compensation, but all the rest of us will be much worse off as well. We live and play like the Romans and our ways will see an end to our wealth and prosperity in the future. This is the way of societies that live beyond the reality of moderation and there are not any countries that are immune to the downfall of their economy. If you ask any great general what got him there he will tell you it is the blood and effort of his troops. The nurses and staff and all employees of El Camino Hospital have made it great no matter who sits around the board room table. The executives come and go, but the employees are there for years and are the constant factor as to how good the hospital will be.

Another over-rated bureaucrat bids adieu at our expense. Over the past few years, the hospital forgave loans and began providing 100% health insurance to the hospital employees. We pay for them with insurance premiums and fees.

CEO compensation spiked in 1999. What caused that to happen? Certainly CEO's in the 60's, 70's, 80's faced the same challenges?
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CEO-To-Worker Pay Ratio Ballooned 1,000 Percent Since 1950...
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