IvyMike: CEOs get paid too damn much

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

CEOs get paid too damn much

A followup to a real-life conversation earlier today: a new study confirms that CEO pay does not correlate to performance. The ratio of average CEO pay to average worker pay was at 431:1 in 2004, continuing a trend of rising CEO pay that began in 1965, when the ratio was 24:1.

One stunning example: in 2005, Forbes magazine rated Exxon CEO Lee Raymond 180 out of 189 for price to performance. That's pretty bad. He then received a $400 million retirement package. Wha?

I always like the fact that the USA was founded, in part, as a rejection of the aristocracy. Unfortunately, I think we're starting to develop our own.

1 Comments:

At 2:56 PM, July 19, 2006, Anonymous said...: America is and has been a plutocracy for a long time. Someday, once I've become filthy rich, I'll understand why this is a good thing.