What exactly is it that CEOs do that gets them 300 times more pay than their workers?

[ck4829]

For every dollar you get, the CEO gets 300.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-ceo-pay-hour-workers-year/story?id=11067470

In the 1970's, for every dollar you got, the CEO got 30. Sounds a lot more reasonable. What changed?

Makes you wonder if there is some sort of secret double life behind our CEOs...

Do they go into parallel universes and do things like stopping Bambi's mom from getting shot?
Do they save the Earth from vicious extraterrestrial invaders and sweep exotic aliens off their feet on a daily basis?
Do they go back into the past to save the space-time continuum from threats that would try to disrupt it?

No? Then what do they do to earn that colossal pay?

[Touchdown]

1. They make a killer martini, and have excellent golf posture.

each of those is worth $400,000 a piece and $6M worth of stock options.

[bulloney]

21. Destroying the middle class and environment is HARD WORK!

[Oregone]

2. Cut worker pay to ensure profits

Suck senator dick to ensure contracts (or simply call up contacts, as GWB had to do heading up a company)

They are worth every penny to shareholders, or otherwise, the unjustified expense would not be paid out.

Their pay is a symptom of the system, not some problem coming out of the blue.

[guitar man]

3. That's not 300%

That's 30,000% if I'm doing the math right.

[ck4829]

6. You're right, 300% would simply be 3 times

Typo.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. That's not 300%--that's 300 TIMES

Three hundred percent is only three times, as you will see if you enlarge a PDF to 300%.

It would almost Maoist economics if CEOs made only 300% of what the average worker makes.

But anyway, yeah, the gap is outrageous.

[tkmorris]

5. That's actually 30000% And the answer is nothing

[ck4829]

7. Yeah, whoops on my part.

[Oregone]

8. "the answer is nothing"

Why would shareholders pay that expense for no reasonable ROI? That goes against the fundamental tenants of capitalism really, and it is the executives who are operating primarily to advanced the capitalistic system (that being, their main job function is to ensure the profits of their shareholders). It seems nonsensical that the expense wasted on these people undermines the very function of their job.

Id assert, there is always a return on this money. Whether the executives know people and enable commerce through those channels, exploit workers, or just reorganize a business, they are always there "doing" something that, on average, results in more revenue than is spent on their pay.

The only exception would simply be if the position is a hand-out to the well-connected son of a rich politician, but mind you, that has a pay back too. Shareholders are not just running a charity

[bettyellen]

12. or they royally fuck up like that Shearson Lehman guy did

[bulloney]

19. Today's corporations practice anything but capitalism.

Socialize the losses. Maintain obscene bonuses despite the fact the company nearly collapses.

All of this is merely the result of at least 30 years of enabling government to whore itself to big business.

[SoCalDem]

9. what changed?

money manipulation became a sport..a game. and it;s winner-take-all..

[truedelphi]

16. And only if you are "Too Big To Fail" are you offered a

Winning ticket entry. The American people, who actually gave away Main's Street Money for the Big Boys antics, can never ever receive a winning entry.

Though, mark my words, our Social Security monies will be next.

[Taitertots]

10. Bribe the government, oh I mean lobby n/t

[montanto]

11. More responsibility.

Har.

Har har.

[truedelphi]

13. And Har! n/t

[AnArmyVeteran]

14. They lie, deceive, run from responsibility & screw consumers

And destroy the environment, use slave, overwork children, buy officeholders, get huge subsidies among hundreds of other immoral and unethical things. CEOs and executives are mostly overpaid buffoons and con men. In general, the more an executive gets paid the less they deserve it and the more corrupt and immoral they are. If bet the psychological profiles of business leaders are virtually identical to the criminals behind bars in our prison system. Hell I bet thugs on death row are better people than sociopaths like Tony Hayward.

[Octafish]

15. If they did that stuff they wouldn't be CEOs.

They'd be contractors. CEOs contribute by deciding stuff, like a decider.

[NC_Nurse]

17. Blow smoke up each other's asses.

[blindpig]

18. They insure that workers are squeezed to the max.....

that the investor/vampires might suck all the more blood from them.

They are debased monsters, serving greater monsters.

[cojoel]

20. They decide how much everybody makes

and guess who wins out on that deal.

[Stevenmarc]

22. Sorry but the board is responsible for CEO compensation, ask them.

Obviously they perceive some return on investment.

And that's the problem with modern corporations the CEO is considered an asset while the employees are considered an expense.

[farmbo]

23. Appoint their golf buddies to the corporate board... that's what they do.

And those geniuses reliably vote for the CEO's 300X salary.

[cbdo2007]

24. Easy - they find people willing to do the menial jobs at their company for 1/300 of what they make.

Let's see you go out and try to do the same thing.