American CEOs are paid several times as much on average as CEOs in other developed countries. They are way overpaid. European CEOs of comparable or larger multinational corporations make much, much, much less. Japanese CEOs make even less.
The notion that you can’t hire talented executives unless you pay the ridiculous sums paid in America is hogwash. Replace them with CEOs from Europe! Or, hey, use their favorite ploy: Hire CEOs from India. Hah!
And these bank, mortgage, insurance, auto manufacturing, and investment firm CEOs that are asking for bail-out money have failed. They are not great talents. Who needs them?
Half a million dollars is still too much for them. It is much more than most other experienced professionals make. Certainly any more than half a million is obscene.
We need to limit all CEO salaries to a reasonable multiple of what the lowest paid worker makes—including contract labor. Yeah, you want to have work done in China for 39 cents an hour? (or 13 cents an hour, if you’re WalMart) Great! But you get to make no more than 50 times that.
Then watch those low worker salaries rise.
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