re: #269 danarchy

If your only talking about fortune 500 companies your numbers are right. The majority of CEOs in the US are not fortune 500 CEOs.

While I agree some of their compensation is way out of whack with their actual performance, much like a sports team signing top pro athletes or a producer signing a big star to his next movie, you are always taking a chance signing that contract. Why should a CEO being hired to run a company with billions or 100’s of billions in revenue not be paid as much as Tom Brady or Tom Cruise?

To me the conversation assuming pay excess in sports or corporate worlds should come at a proportion. Is that pay sucking the life out of fair pay for the rest of the players, actors, or workers/managers? If not move on. If so have at it. The other thing is perhaps who we are talking about. Elon Musk is not a fair comparison to a Wal-Mart Walton. From time to time actors and managers leave money on the table for others.

I remember that with the best intention, we made a law that penalized big salaries. Then corporate started paying in stock options, a device intended to let small/med capital companies hunt for talent and skilled executives like the bigger fish. Epic backfire.