Big day at RRW yesterday—What were readers most interested in?

For some reason the number of readers arriving at RRW is increasing.  The other day we reported some of the topics that were most often searched that were bringing people to our blog.

Doing well by doing good! George Rupp’s salary/benefits package increased by just short of $90,000 in five years! Did yours? Photo:  IRC website

Yesterday our numbers were way above normal and what most everyone was looking for was information on how much George Rupp, the head honcho at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a federal refugee contractor, is making.

I guess they are curious about how much former British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, will make when he comes on board to replace Rupp in September.

No surprise, readers from the UK this week surpassed our numbers from Canada, which is usually second to the US in our reader international round-up.

LOL!  Here are ten searches in the top fifteen that brought readers to RRW yesterday:

International rescue committee ceo salary
irc ceo salary
dr george rupp salary
international rescue committee controversy
george rupp salary
international rescue committee salary
international rescue committee salaries
salary of irc ceo
international rescue committee salary ranges
international rescue committee income

Google was directing most searches to this old post I wrote in 2008 critical of the IRC.  It became our top post yesterday.  In that post we quoted Rupp’s salary as $357,657 (from the 2005 Form 990).  Since so many readers were seeing that post I quickly updated the information to include his salary and benefits from the 2010 Form 990.

The IRC is a $431 million dollar organization which gets $247 million from YOU, the taxpayer (page 9 of their most recent Form 990, here).  And, guess where you have to go to find out the salaries being paid at the IRC?  Page 254 of their 299-page Form 990.  George Rupp, their head honcho makes a cool $447,432 in salary and benefits which beats Obama’s $400,000 salary!

For further comparison, Members of Congress make around $175,000.

So, the next time you hear the IRC boo-hooing that they don’t have enough of your tax dollars for the poor struggling refugees the IRC has placed in your town, consider the salaries they are paying the top brass (they have a boatload of VPs in the six figures too!).

Endnote:  To be clear, if this was a truly private business that took no taxpayer money, what they pay their CEO is none of the public’s business.   However, when they take gobs of your money for their work (their “charity”!) it becomes our business.

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