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Idea Detail
1320
Points

Cap the income of CEO’s by maintaining a minimum ratio of “CEO pay rate” to “Employee pay rate.”

For instance an example might be, that no employee, contractor or otherwise, will receive pay no more than say 60% higher than the lowest paid employee—or some well thought out version of that. The Annual CEO Compensation Survey, that I mentioned earlier, noted in it’s findings that “CEOs of large U.S. companies last year made as much money from just one day on the job as average workers made over the entire year. These top executives averaged $10.8 million in total compensation, over 364 times the pay of the average American worker, a calculation based on data from an Associated Press survey of 386 Fortune 500 companies. “ The economy is top heavy. We must restore balance.
7 Comments  »  Posted by http://warismyconcern.wordpress.com to Economy on 1/12/2009 11:57 AM

Comments
 
hope
1/12/2009 10:44 PM
There are better ways of doing this, such as simply taxing CEOs more.
 
Kevin J. Kauth
1/13/2009 3:31 AM
The idea is good but should only apply to public buisnesses and should be decided by the shareholders.
 
alms
1/13/2009 4:37 AM
We have minimum wage laws...
Where's the Maximum wage laws?
 
peterbilt_47
1/13/2009 5:28 AM
Excellent idea.  This should be augmented with strict guidelines stating that any outside contractor or "vendor's" pay rate has to be considered binding on this ratio, to prevent any outsourcing shenanigans.  Corporations have proven adept at externalizing costs and risks, and internalizing profits. 

I don't think taxing CEOs more is a better way of doing this; I think requiring proportion is the most elegant way.  You want to make more money?  Great, so do we all.  When you look out for the people who make your company go, then you can reward yourself more.  A very few companies already live by this rule, and they have proven successful.
 
samusan
1/13/2009 3:03 PM
And what about entertainers like sports stars and movie celebs?  Gonna cap them too?  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the idea of a corporate wage cap but that opens a really ugly can of worms in a country that still considers profits more important than people.  Teachers should be making a $1M year, not some guy who plays a teacher on TV.  Where does one draw the line?
 
peterbilt_47
1/13/2009 5:45 PM
Yes, cap them too.  It opens a can of worms and closes it.  If you do work for an organization, whether that work is as a CEO, a contracted athlete, or sweeping the floors, your compensation registers as part of a ratio.  The highest paid person (whatever job they do) maxes out at some multiple of the lowest paid person (whatever job they do).  CEO or athlete wants to get richer?  Great, you can make the janitor richer, too.  

Simple.
 
Qualified US IT Worker
1/13/2009 6:44 PM
Not to mention...No more "Golden Parachutes."
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