Comments on: How executive pay gets so out of control

By: Blackbird1996

Blackbird1996 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:21:58 +0000

I think we should revert to the wild west. In the old days, workers were ignorant of such things, but with the knowledge we have now about business, outcomes would be much different. Once we found out how much money was being made by our hard work, and how much the executives were being paid compared to us workers, we would all say “get a rope”. The people who work for the profit of the company should be paid dividends far greater than those who simply have the luxury of investing. Face the facts people, the rich have been screwing the poor since the beginning of time. Why? Greed, and because they can. Ask yourself who works harder for their money? The investor or the man risking his life, his family’s well being, his children’s education, and his family’s health, breaking his back drilling oil;working in the mine…etc.? Who deserves the most dividends for their efforts and risk? Who truly is risking the most?

By: laguardia23

laguardia23 — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:58:32 +0000

Throw the stockholders under the bus. Most of them are just mooching off of whatever dividends they get, worsening speculation. Board members ARE hand picked by the CEO.
The CEO isn’t usually mature enough to handle the bad news so he only picks the board members who are going to serve his preferences. GREED is just the appetizer. GLUTTONY is the main course and LAYOFFS are for dessert.

By: yogahelps2

yogahelps2 — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 11:08:26 +0000

Wow! Did anyone learn anything new from this article? Wish I could be paid for writing a few obvious notes about exec comp.

By: gordo53

gordo53 — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:43:54 +0000

If you don’t like the way the company is run, you can sell your stock. In a fortune 500 company, executive pay amounts to a rounding error on the company books. This just more mindless deriding of the rich. Grow up.

By: FredFlintstone

FredFlintstone — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:37:09 +0000

Tying CEO pay to a multiple of the lowest salary would still be the most direct, fair, and predictable solution.

To @Redshield’s point about TRW, the problem is less the mobility of senior executives and more the high pay at other companies acting as a lure and a failure of TRW, in this case, to properly plan succession management.

The unpredictable nature of CEO pay allows companies to do what states do using low taxes to lure companies to set up in their states: the short term benefit of jobs is offset by less revenue for critical infrastructure and services in that state. Allowing CEO pay to be as loosely defined as it creates a similar negative dynamic. Negative to investors, customers (who pay higher prices), and workers.

There are least four stakeholders in any large public company: investors, managers, workers, and customers. The current pay system gives outsized benefits to the managers at the expense of the other three stakeholders.

By: GinaSwifte

GinaSwifte — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 14:16:28 +0000

I do not understand why it is considered okay for the CEO et al to receive performance-related pay when a company is not improving and at the same time redundancies occur. Surely, the humblest worker and the most senior member of staff all work to improve profits. Therefore, they should all be on a related pay-scale. My suggestion would be 1:100 – the boss gets 100 times the pay of the lowest employee.

By: QuietThinker

QuietThinker — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 12:56:22 +0000

I disagree with gordo53. Shareholders are the victims here. They own the company not the CEO. However, the CEO appoints the board, and the shareholders have no alternate candidates. Board elections are exactly like elections in the old Soviet Union – one slate of candidates who always win. CEO pay is way out of control.

By: keroline

keroline — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:48:41 +0000

Whether these bad bad bad cases of greed take place in government or in the coporations–it is the business of all of us. We need to become a country where there are not such extreme disparities. EVERY working person should be able to have a decent life.

By: keroline

keroline — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:43:18 +0000

A multitude of working people making minimum wage, no benefits, can be fired at will…often one paycheck away from homelessness…Here at home in the US. These greedy sociopaths (kinder than the words I might use) steal millions. They make a mockery out of the words “freedom” and “prosperity” as used in our constitution. Shame, shame, shame.

By: JavaJoe

JavaJoe — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:35:23 +0000

Self government without self control will never work. Corporate America has no problem placing controls on the workers as does the federal government. The congress can pass laws on healthcare that they themselves don’t have participate. If CEO’s and top executives don’t start exercising some self control or sharing the wealth then the government will do it for them. It only takes a totalitarian like Obama and his radical supporters. He’s already pitting the rich against poor, blacks against whites, democrats against republicans, religious against secular. CEO pay is a reflection of our government and our government is a reflection of us. Both or the same need to start exercising some self control. Batista couldn’t back in the 50′s and Cuba got Castro. The alternative isn’t always better.