Should the salaries of CEOs be in legal proportion to the average salary of the workers in the company?

[Year of the Monkey]

Should there be a law that makes the CEOs salary cap off until the salaries rise for the other employees?

Free market vs. Social Conscience

No wrong answers.

[Alan S]

no. keep the government and sub-sequential laws out of business.

[theearlybirdy]

No, keep government out of business.

[GA-Seagull]

As much as I disagree with huge salaries for CEO's, the board voted on it. The board is suppose to know the company needs better than the average Joe on the street. Maybe that is how they got the CEO to come over to their company, promises of big bucks. We live in a free market economy, so they can make whatever. Do I like it, hell no. Does it always work...nope again. Hope that helps.

[obamaforprez]

"legal proportion"? Anyway, no. Market forces dictate. If a Board of Directors feel it's in a company's and the stockholder's best interest to pay a CEO a cool mil a year, who's to say they're wrong. The worker's interests are protected by the government, i.e. minimum wage, mandatory breaks, etc. Further, the workers usually have the right to unionize, which is a counter-balancing force.

[answerer]

Its true, the government should stay out of it - but the people should unite. Exxon gave their CEO a gift of $400 million.

They are an oil company, can you imagine how many chemists, chemical engineers, etc. they could hire for that amount, and create the latest and greatest product?

Its a poor use of money, people should band together and boycott them and not invest in Exxon stock.

This is where our individualism works against us - you'll never get millions of people to agree on a boycott. But it is possible there may be some legal recourse - usually bylaws of a company say they will maximize profit for the stockholders. If you can prove this act did not keep with that objective, you could possibly sue (wouldn't bet on winning though..).

[Paulie D]

Who defines "legal proportion"? In a free market economy, C.E.O's are paid according to the value they add to the company.

[Christina H]

No. That is Marxism not Capitalism which is what our economy is based on. Higher pay for higher education. Don't like what you get paid. Get more education/job skills and improve your own life. Quit looking for an easy way out.

[fredrick z]

50 years ago CEO's made 80 times what the average employee was paid. Today its 400 times. The boss makes in one day what it takes the average employee in his company a year to earn.

As far as I know, there is no legal constraint on this inequity, nor do I personally see how one could be implemented. The CEO reports to share holders and the workers report to the CEO. If the shareholders think the CEO is worth $12 million a year and and the CEO says that line workers are worth $7.50/hour then that's the way its going to be.

About the only tactic that will be effective in getting workers paid and treated properly are labor unions. But no one wants to join a union because everyone is in "management" even those earning minimum wage.

[Leogirl0804]

It's up to the board of directors of that company as to what they will pay the CEO, or if its a company the CEO founded they can pay themselves what they like. They decide (free market).