>
> [...]
> > Is the CEO so much more valuable and important a person
> that he needs
> > his 7 figure salery, stock options, bonuses, and perks?
>
>
> In a word, yes - because the pool of people who can do
> what he does is very small. The responsibility is huge and
> so are the benefits.
> If you paid your CEO less, you would tend to attract sub-par
> applicants or your existing CEO would be stolen away by
> another company willing to pay them more.
Sad but true. For executives, it's an unfortunate race to the top
regarding this grossly disproportionate compensation. I don't think any
of us has a problem with executive (or worker) pay being higher for the
reason you suggest: responsibilities and qualifications. It makes
sense. Work must be rewarded, and I have outstanding student loan
balances. If someone can actually perform and add to shareholder and
consumer value, great. However, I question whether the responsibility
and qualifications of the executives at most corporations warrant a
compensation package that is *orders of magnitude* higher than the
little people that produce the goods and services. Spring-loaded,
back-dated stock-options, "accounting irregularities", corporate jets,
corporate limos, corporate housing, golden parachutes, $6000 shower
curtains, multi-million dollar parties, art committees, multi-million
dollar CEO pension plans, defaulted worker pension plans, tax evasion,
Kozlowski, Grasso, Brown, Quattrone, Lay, Fastow, Ebbers, Skilling,
Causey, Scrushy, Swartz, Stewart... There's no wonder in my mind why
shareholders and consumers are re-examining obscene CEO pay and
scrutinizing the books. This small group of highly visible examples
have me wondering what they're >all< up to and if they're worth the
investment. I suppose I'm saying "Trust but verify", to paraphrase
Saint Ron. Verify them until they show they can be trusted.
An interesting Mopar-related nugget: As he gently settled to the earth
under his $210 million golden parachute, the former CEO of Home Depot,
Bob Nardelli, was hired as the CEO of Chrysler by Cerberus Group. These
guys get passed around like babies at an old-folks home. His salary is
an appropriate $1. Other as-yet undisclosed compensation will be based
on actual "performance". We'll see.
> Oh, and
> perhaps most importantly, believe almost nothing of what you read in
> the newspaper or see on TV. :-)
>
Or hear on your A.M. radio...
> --
> -Jon-
>
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