Thursday, June 7, 2012
On CEO Salaries
The way that I see it, people, mega CEO salaries are kind of like earmarks. Yes, they're exceedingly unseemly/aggravating, but in the larger scope of things they're also exceedingly insignificant. Please, hear me out........................................................................................The average CEO salary for the Fortune 500 companies was a shade under 10 million a year last year. Yes, that's a lot but, taken in their entirety, that's only about 5 billion a year; 5 billion a year out of a 15 TRILLION dollar a year economy. That's a total drop in the bucket. I mean, think about it here. These frigging blankety blanks could probably work for zero and it might not even register, especially now - now that we're also looking at full-fledged high-tech and global economy..........................................................................................And even that 10 million dollar a year average salary is misleading. This, in that when you also include in the data all of the smaller and average sized companies out there, the average CEO salary in this country dwindles all the way down to $167,280 a year (this, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and salarylist.com). Yes, still a pretty decent sum but not in any way disgusting............................................................................................Now, as to whether or not these Fortune 500 CEOs are overpaid, don't know/couldn't tell you. You'd probably have to go on a case by case basis to determine that. My suspicion is that, just like with any profession, you're going to find some that are overpaid and some that are underpaid. Not, mind you, that any of us have the expertise to be certain about it.................................................................................................P.S. Just for the record, I would tax these CEOs at 40% on everything over $400,000 AND limit their mortgage interest deduction AND do away with their special consideration for capital gains. You know, just in case that there might be some partisan paranoiac stooges out there who might be tempted to lie and say that I always favor the wealthy.
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You realize, of course, that your argument that CEO salaries are no big deal because they are a very small portion of the total economy can also be used for raising the minimum wage. After all, less than 3% of wage earners get paid the minimum wage. They probably make up less than 1% of the total national wage burden -- an insignificant amount.
Jerry, you're forgetting that the businesses affected would have to fire workers if the minimum wage went up. Even though they'd be losing money by doing so (because with less workers they couldn't produce as much product/provide the same level of service).
It's something they'd have to do purely out of spite. "Raise the minimum wage? I'll show you!"
All that the minimum wage does is freeze young, unskilled workers out of the job market (nearly half of the people currently on it are 24 and under). I say get rid of it and replace it with a negative income tax (for those very few heads of households still subsisting on it).
Will: All that the minimum wage does is freeze young, unskilled workers out of the job market...
How do you THINK it does this?
One effect of the minimum wage is that it discourages the employment of lesser preferred/skilled workers and it's probably one of the major reasons for the high unemployment rate among teenagers.
WD : Will KNOWS. Because that is what happens when you force small businesses to give people unearned handouts. They'd rather not hire people than be forced to give them unearned handouts above the value of the work they do.
WD, have you ever run a small business? Or worked in one???
Will said: "One effect of the minimum wage is that it discourages the employment of lesser preferred/skilled workers "
Of course. Because it is an unfunded mandate that employers give such workers unearned handouts entirely without regard to the economic situation of the worker.
Thus the minimum wage earner who is a single teen mom with 2 kids gets the same handout as a kid from a rich family getting his first job. All at the expense of small business owners, because the cowards in Congress or legislatures don't put it in their own budgets. So they force small business owners to pay for this sloppy welfare program which only benefits the needy some of the time.
It's the most boneheaded welfare program in all ways.
Why support it at all, unless you believe that rich kids who work at at a mom-and-pop shop need a handout, and you believe that America's small business owners each and every one is sitting on vast piles of wealth and they need to be forced to put a dent in these vast cash piles by giving gifts to their workers?
WD said: "Jerry, you're forgetting that the businesses affected would have to fire workers if the minimum wage went up. Even though they'd be losing money by doing so (because with less workers they couldn't produce as much product/provide the same level of service)."
Actually, the service does end up suffering. Companies risk this rather than take the massive financial hit of having to give unearned cash gifts to so many workers due to an unfunded government mandate.
Fair pay isn't an "unearned handout".
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