Numbers on ExxonMobil: Some Perspective

Thursday, ExxonMobil posted record profits for the third quarter: $14.83 billion. This beats the company’s previous record three months ago and ranks as the biggest profit of any American company in history (1). This, in a period of economic slowdown.

That’s approximately 100 times the amount of money Barack Obama raised last month (2).

That’s equivalent to the 12-month salaries for 354,000 high school teachers or 237,355 registered nurses (3).

That’s enough to keep 334,174 prisoners in their cells for a year (4).

That equals the production budget of The Dark Knight times 82 (5).

If distributed equally amongst all 81,000 of ExxonMobil’s workforce, each employee would earn over $728,000 this year, above and beyond his or her annual salary (6).

ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson earns a salary of $21.7 million (7). But that’s only 7% of what the Obama campaign picked up in September alone, and would pay the annual salaries of only 500 teachers and nurses, and keep only 488 prisoners in their cells, and produce only the first 12 minutes of The Dark Knight.

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(1) Smith, Aaron. “Exxon Mobil: Biggest Profit in History.” 30 Oct.2008. CNN Money.com http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/30/news/companies/exxon_earnings/index.htm?cnn=yes.

(2) Stoddard, Ed. “Obama Fund-raising Seems to Defy Financial Crisis.” 20 Oct. 2008. Tales from the Trail. Reuters. http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/10/20/obama-fund-raising-seems-to-defy-financial-crisis/.

(3) “Occupational Employment Statistics.” May 2007. Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://www.bls.gov.

(4) Associated Press. “Cost per Prison Inmate by State.” 19 Oct. 2008. OregonLive.com. http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/elections-0/1224436757242730.xml&storylist=orlocal.

(5) “The Dark Knight.” 18 July 2008. Dark Horizons. http://www.darkhorizons.com/2008/darkknight.php.

(6) “Employment Data.” ExxonMobil. 2008. http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/about_who_workforce_data.aspx.

(7) Associated Press. “Exxon Mobil CEO Gets $21.7 Million Pay Package After Record Year.” 10 Apr. 2008. KTEN.com. http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=8148522.