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ON THE JOB: PROTECTING PAY FOR THOSE WHO SERVE

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Staff and News Service, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

As our servicemen and women risk their lives in Iraq, which companies are fighting the hardest to protect their pay and benefits at home?

Schering-Plough Corp. tops the list, paying employees full salaries and covering health care and life insurance after they are called up, according to a new survey by Forbes.com.

The rest of the top ten in the Forbes survey in descending order are: First Data Corp., W.W. Grainger Inc., Dow Chemical Co., Bank One Corp., CDW Computer Centers Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp., IBM Corp., DTE Energy Co. and Union Pacific Corp.

Unfortunately, no Washington-based companies cracked the top 10. Still, The Boeing Co. ranked 16th in a separate study of benefits by the Reserve Officers Association. Of course, Boeing is no longer a Seattle-based concern.

Unfortunately, the men and women on the Iraqi front lines don't earn much compared with their peers, according to another report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Privates with a year of service collect $15,480 a year in base salary to serve their country, while newly commissioned second lieutenants earn roughly $26,200 annually, the Chicago-based consulting firm reported last week. The data don't include free military housing, meals and other benefits, however.

Even the chief of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Tommy Franks, earns only an annual base salary of $153,948.

That's nothing compared with what the leaders of corporate America earn. Boeing CEO Phil Condit, for example, pulled down $2.5 million in salary and bonuses last year.

And Condit was nowhere near the top of the CEO pay list.

The government pays people more to risk their lives, doling out $150 a month for combat duty in Iraq, Somalia, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and other hot spots, according to Military.com.

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