05-10-2011, 04:01 PM
It's not at all surprising that CEO pay would now be surpassing 2007 levels. I mean look at the stock market.
I don't care how much CEO's are paid in terms of raw dollars, what matters is how much they are paid relative to the typical worker in their company. That disparity now is that they earn 343 times the salary of average workers. That is an unhealthy, unsustainable trend for our economy. It reflects the fact that real middle class wages not only stagnated, they fell off at a time when top executives were rewarded like never before.
To put that in perspective, only 20 years ago CEO's earned around 150 times what average workers did. Back in 1950 they earned around 25 times what average workers did, and arose exclusively through the ranks or were the founder of the company. There weren't superstar deal makers who went from board room to board room with their bag of magic tricks to make the stock look better short term while screwing over workers.
We need accountability from Boards of Directors again...the CEO reports to them. Cashing out while running companies into the ground has been great sport for a few, for a while, but after a time that comes around to bite people in the backside.
I don't care how much CEO's are paid in terms of raw dollars, what matters is how much they are paid relative to the typical worker in their company. That disparity now is that they earn 343 times the salary of average workers. That is an unhealthy, unsustainable trend for our economy. It reflects the fact that real middle class wages not only stagnated, they fell off at a time when top executives were rewarded like never before.
To put that in perspective, only 20 years ago CEO's earned around 150 times what average workers did. Back in 1950 they earned around 25 times what average workers did, and arose exclusively through the ranks or were the founder of the company. There weren't superstar deal makers who went from board room to board room with their bag of magic tricks to make the stock look better short term while screwing over workers.
We need accountability from Boards of Directors again...the CEO reports to them. Cashing out while running companies into the ground has been great sport for a few, for a while, but after a time that comes around to bite people in the backside.