Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Million dollar executives - overpaid business executives - the case for equitable compensation


The ills of capitalism are best epitomised by the obscene salaries some CEOs are getting and the widening gap between the elite and the majority who are struggling to make ends meet. 



There is nothing wrong with paying high salaries for highly skilled, capable, intelligent and diligent people who take risks, put their career on the line, to drive the company to earn huge profits, reward shareholders, provide jobs for the people and make other social contributions.  

But CEOs getting hundreds of millions, of which only a fraction is declared as salary is ludicrous.  To justify high pay check, many executives resort to short term and short sighted business tactics that could in fact bring the company down in the longer term when they are no longer around to carry the baby. 


The Australian Council of  Superannuation Investors found the average chief executive's total pay package last year - $4.9 million - was up on 2009. Astonishingly, it was actually 9.3 per cent higher than the payouts chief executives received in the boom times of 2006.




Shareholders nowadays are better educated and ought to band together to check and restrict excesses in rewarding CEOs. 

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