Comment by pstuart
6 hours ago
As it should be. The pay gap from CEO to bottom tier worker is now obscene (21 times in 1965 and ~285 today). It's the foxes looking after the henhouses.
6 hours ago
As it should be. The pay gap from CEO to bottom tier worker is now obscene (21 times in 1965 and ~285 today). It's the foxes looking after the henhouses.
Last I looked at the most cited version of that ratio, it was comparing Fortune 500 CEO total compensation—including incentive-based stock appreciation—to economy-wide average hourly wages.
That makes about as much sense as comparing top 500 Hollywood actor earnings (including residuals) with the day wages of the folks showing up in TV commercials and as film extras.
The BLS keeps statistics on Chief Executives in general, and pegs their median wages around $200k:
https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/may/oes111011.htm
Not sure why the left cares so much about CEO to work pay ratio these days, especially when Marx himself recognized that ownership was the true source inequality. A CEO is just a really well paid worker. Even CEOs who become billionaires do so from capital appreciation more than compensation.
Because Marx theories do not hold up to reality, and most people can plainly see it.
How is it working for the US to have every company mostly owned by the general public's retirement funds?
>How is it working for the US to have every company mostly owned by the general public's retirement funds?
It’s working quite well for retirees.
> Because Marx theories do not hold up to reality
Sure, but ownership being the root of inequality was the one thing that he was actually correct about. CEO to worker pay ratio is something that is completely irrelevant. Companies spend orders of magnitude more money on its shareholders (dividends, buybacks, and reinvestment) than executive compensation.
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A CEO is a worker incentivized to maximize profits to maximize compensation. And nowadays they see other workers not as a profit center, but as a blockage to their next big payout.
So yes, it is a problem when leadership doesn't have long term aspirations for the large company.