Showing posts with label Wheel of Fortune. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wheel of Fortune. Show all posts

Sunday, July 24, 2011

The insanity of salaries.

Vanna White is a pretty women, beautiful even, and she looks wonderful in every dress she wears on the "Wheel of Fortune". Her job doesn't require much: she must smile, clap a lot, move gracefully and, of course, turn over letters. She has been doing this since 1982.And, I am guessing, she is a very dependable employee and a pleasure to work with. But I find it astonishing that her annual salary is reported to be as high as $4 million. Even if it's only $2 million that's an incredible amount of money for someone who is basically a 54-year old model. But what amazes even more is how she got that salary. She does not strike me as someone who would insist angrily that her letter-turning skills are worth a fortune. Nor can I imagine the show's producers feeling that she is absolutely indispensable and there is not another model who couldn't, after a brief adjustment, fit right in. So, it must be that the show makes so much money, the producers can say, "Oh, what the hell. Give her a two million dollar raise. We can afford it." In which cases she's a very lucky woman since I assume thousands of equally beautiful women would think $200,000 a princely price for this princess's job. Well more power to her. But I find salaries very disturbing. not because so many people are overpaid but because so many hard-working, dependable, valuable people are so grossly underpaid.

Note: Pat Sajak's salary is a well-guarded secret. But one can only imagine how much he's paid in relation to Vanna. However, like Vanna, he seems to be a genuinely nice person unlike so many millionaires we love to hate.

P.S. I wouldn't want anyone to think I watch "Wheel." I find it incredibly tedious and over-hyped. But I usually catch the fnal puzzle before watching "Jeopardy." Oh, my God. How much must Alex make!