<p>I don’t see his main value as creating 47000 jobs. He created wealth for millions of investors and created many many amazing products for consumers. I am sure he earned far more than the average worker at his company and he was worth far more than what he was paid.</p>
<p>It’s nobody’s business what CEO’s are paid any more than it is my business what anyone on CC is paid.</p>
<p>I disagree. So does the SEC.</p>
<p>[Executive</a> Compensation](<a href=“http://www.sec.gov/answers/execomp.htm]Executive”>Executive Compensation)</p>
<p>The SEC requires disclosure. It does not presume to tell a company how much it can pay its CEO relative to the average worker.</p>
<p>That’s not what we are talking about. You are saying it is not my, or anyone’s, business what a CEO gets paid. Apparently it is.</p>
<p>It’s all of our business when we see the differentials increase as they have in recent times. I don’t know the ramifications of the trend but knowing the possible effects can be important. </p>
<p>I have a deep concern that executive compensation consultants being used to set these pay level for top management are not well versed enough or not taking into account that the rewards matrices they are setting up for these executives truly steer the direction of the company. It’s frightened me to see some of the goals set for the top brass, and of course they will set policy and company goals and directions to maximize their pay.</p>
<p>I’m saying it’s nobody’s business to tell a company what it can pay its CEO. The SEC does not set CEO pay and no one else should either. If people want to be paid like CEOs they they should start companies or develop the skills necessary to be CEOs.</p>
<p>CEO salaries are set by company directors acting on behalf of shareholders. It’s only their business what the CEO should be paid.</p>
<p>Let’s list all the companies where the CEO’s make sure that they don’t make obscenely more than their average worker.</p>
<p>I can only think of two: Costco and Ben and Jerry’s</p>
<p>^And many, many small businesses. That’s one reason why I always try to buy local whenever I can.</p>
<p>The successful company that I work for and employs 10000 people has a CEO who makes on the order of 40 times what the lower paid people make. It is however a Dutch company. Companies in other countries don’t have such a divergence in salaries as we do here.</p>
<p>“CEO salaries are set by company directors acting on behalf of shareholders. It’s only their business what the CEO should be paid.”</p>
<p>See, that is the problem. Many times the board of directors are friends of the CEO’s, jacking up their salary far more than their value. And the board gets paid huge sums for doing almost nothing. Win/win, in their case. Lose for everybody else. They often are not acting in the best interests of their shareholders, their companies, or the employees. </p>
<p>I don’t begrudge massive salaries when the CEO started the company, and is the amazing genius that created the product, and a very successful company. But I do begrudge the guys that get their buddies to raise their pay to outrageous levels…while employees are getting laid off and the company is losing money. Then they structure it so they don’t even have to pay tax on it as ordinary income. This is really the same sort of thing as those city employees in California (forgot the name) that managed to pay themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars, by having their co-conspirators set each others pay, while the city was broke.</p>
<p>Just because your friends help you get away with it doesn’t mean it’s not theft, if you raid the company to pay yourself a huge salary.</p>
<p>All the more reason to support small businesses.</p>
<p>Busdriver #30, exactly.</p>
<p>The issue is that the CEO’s sit on each other’s boards and approve each other’s pay.</p>
<p>There are issues and rumblings right now. Companies used to pay dividends, now they hoard cash and pay CEO’s obscene multiples of what they are actually worth.</p>
<p>They run the company into the ground, they get a raise. It’s preposterous.</p>
<p>Many successful european countries hold boards responsible if the CEO is grossly overpaid compared to performance. The boards are liable and also shareholders themselves can make binding votes to limit CEO pay.</p>
<p>Board of directors is to CEO what FED is to To Big to Fail. A scam.</p>
<p>I love that. They sit on each others boards and decide each others salaries. Just grand, looking out for the shareholders, I’m sure! Hey, I think for my company, I’ll figure out my own board of directors…my husband, sister, kids, parents, and my dogs. Okay, maybe not my dogs, because even though they would put a nice pawprint on anything I asked, they’d eat all the snacks.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t put my dogs in. They’d vote me out for my daughters and then come to me to get paid. :p</p>
<p>This kind of stuff is not what made our country strong. Henry Ford believed the best thing he could do was pay his workers enough to be able to buy his cars. I think he was right.</p>
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<p>That is the exception not the rule. Public companies have directors elected by shareholders. Often big pensions who hold a lot of shares choose the directors. The directors get fired if the company does not do well and, thus, they hire a CEO who will make money for the company. Most CEOs with gold parachutes get them because they are already in a successful company and need some big incentive to leave that security and take over a failing company. If a company’s management does not do well and the Board keeps the CEO, the company gets guys like Carl Ichan buying up shares in order to replace the existing directors with ones who will run the company to make money.</p>
<p>razorsharp, you explain things as if some of us don’t know exactly what is going on. We know. Some of us know from first hand experience.</p>
<p>Board of Directors is to CEOs
What the FED is to the Too Big to Fails.</p>
<p>Joe average citizen is not the one who wins. It is as stupid as strip mining or clear cutting trees instead of taking every third tree. It isn’t beneficial in the long run and only benefits the immediate exploiters.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t put my dogs in. They’d vote me out for my daughters and then come to me to get paid,”</p>
<p>I love that one :D. I nominate it as one of cc’s funniest lines. I wonder if there is a thread somewhere for that.</p>
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<p>Actually you don’t have a clue. </p>
<p>Too big to fail banks were bailed out by congress not the fed. TARP was created by congress not the fed.</p>
<p>^Again, not the same thing. We are talking about executive pay. You don’t have to have a problem with the gross inequity between the CEOs and their minions (or the 1% and everyone else), but many of us do. It’s not about “having a clue.” The more some of us are informed, the more outraged we become.</p>
<p>Well, if you work for one of these companies, you most likely are satisfied with the current CEO.
[50</a> Highest Rated CEOs | Glassdoor](<a href=“http://www.glassdoor.com/50-Highest-Rated-CEOs.htm]50”>http://www.glassdoor.com/50-Highest-Rated-CEOs.htm)</p>