The New York Times has a front-page news article today about the fact that Herbert Pardes had $5.6 million in total compensation for 2012 as "executive vice chairman" of the board of trustees of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. The article quotes Princeton University health care economist Uwe Reinhardt:
they said that in the context of a $3.7 billion organization, Dr. Pardes's salary would not affect the bottom line.
"There might be other reasons why one might call this a problem," Dr. Reinhardt said. "Obviously, social envy is one of them."
It's rare and refreshing to see the Times, even in a quote, use the word "envy" to describe the compensation (and related income inequality) controversy. That is indeed a key part of the issue. The Times article doesn't get into how much of NewYork-Presbyterian's revenue comes from government Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and government research grants, which is another aspect of the issue that some might consider relevant. Anyway, it looks like Dr. Pardes's (non)exit package was less than that of departed Times Company CEO Janet Robinson, and Dr. Pardes did a better job running a bigger organization. But Ms. Robinson's exit package was not the subject of any disapproving front-page Times news article.