Oracle CFO and President Makes More in One Hour than Oregonians Eligible for the Oregon Health Plan Make in a Year

For two years in a row, Safra Catz was ranked the highest-paid woman in the U.S. by Fortune Magazine. Catz, President and CFO of software giant Oracle, earned over $43 million in 2012. In one hour, Catz earns over $20,000—while Oregonians eligible for the Oregon Health Plan earn about $16,000 in a year.    Larry Ellison, Founder of Oracle, is the world’s highest-paid CEO, with a compensation package worth nearly $77 million. In 2014, Fortune Magazine listed him as the third-wealthiest man in America and the fifth-wealthiest person in the world, with a fortune of $48 billion. Ellison earns more than $37,000 in one hour—more than double what Oregonians eligible for the Oregon Health Plan earn in a year.   “These numbers are outrageous,” said Heather Conroy, Executive Director for SEIU Local 503. “This is a company that has received nearly $90 million from the State of Oregon, and has yet to deliver a functional website.”     In June 2011, Oracle was selected to develop Oregon’s online health care exchange, which was supposed to be ready and operable for an October 2013 launch. Despite being paid tens of millions of dollars over that period, Oracle has failed to deliver a functional website.    “Oracle executives are paid far more than their performance warrants,” said Conroy. “Oregonians have been waiting for months to have access to health care through the exchange, but all we’ve seen from Oracle are continual broken promises. And yet, not a single person at the company has been held accountable.”   “Oracle has earned billions of dollars from government contracts over the years,” said Conroy. “There’s a larger problem with contracting critical public services to private companies where there’s no control over executives’ compensation. Larry Ellison and Safra Cruz have profited greatly from Oregon taxpayer money despite Oracle’s failures.”    This critique comes following the latest report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released just last week that highlights Oracle’s significant performance failures. The results from another independent review ordered by Governor Kitzhaber are expected later this week.    Despite the challenges, the latest data released by the federal government shows that Oregon ranks 7th in enrollment among state-based exchanges and 27th in the country. Fifteen states are enrolling people through their own exchanges; other states are using the federal governments healthcare.gov website to enroll their citizens. More than two hundred thousand Oregonians now have access to health care coverage for the first time, thanks to the help of partners like SEIU.    “Since the fall, SEIU has been working on the ground to empower Oregonians with the facts about the new health care benefits,” said Conroy. “We have hosted more than 100 enrollment events across the state and successfully signed up more than 5,000 Oregonians. SEIU will continue taking action to ensure that the new health care law is working for Oregonians.”