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Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

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Re: Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

#41

Post by throw0101b »

kortilla wrote: post #12
econperplexed wrote: post #8

> From 1978 to 2021, CEO pay grew by 1,460%, adjusted for inflation, versus just 18.1% for the typical worker. Why has the supply of CEOs not kept up with the demand for them? Surely, with the improvement in education and in increase in MBA programs, there must be far more CEOs today than in 1978. Why has the ratio of CEOs to Companies fallen by 14x for their wages to rise this much? /s As many argue, wages are only…

There is no academic training to be a good CEO. They are not easily replaceable. If they were, board members wouldn’t bother offering such high pay. Shareholders don’t appreciate wasting money.

> There is no training to be a good CEO. They are not easily replaceable.

If Steve Jobs—who first created and then basically rescued Apple and started it on the path to where it is today—can be 'replaced' then any other leader can be replaced.

Similarly there are plenty of CEOs that are paid oodles of money that were or are absolute garbage: see Boeing for the last 15+ years as Exhibit A.

Re: Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

#42

Post by fallingfrog »

econperplexed wrote: post #8

> From 1978 to 2021, CEO pay grew by 1,460%, adjusted for inflation, versus just 18.1% for the typical worker. Why has the supply of CEOs not kept up with the demand for them? Surely, with the improvement in education and in increase in MBA programs, there must be far more CEOs today than in 1978. Why has the ratio of CEOs to Companies fallen by 14x for their wages to rise this much? /s As many argue, wages are only…

“Supply and demand” is a very limited special case of a broader principal, which is that pay reflects power. CEO’s power and control over their own pay has increased, and the power of regular workers has decreased. There are a myriad of reasons for this but it’s certainly deliberate.

Re: Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

#43

Post by skyyler »

hinkley wrote: post #26
tysam_and wrote: post #9

There is an equation with an equilibrium: CEO's pay rate = (some multiplier) * median salaried worker's pay rate OR CEO's pay rate = (some multiplier) * minimum salaried worker's pay rate We've been conditioned to think it's not fair somehow, but the discrepancy is just....engorgingly terrible. I'm not arguing for how this metric would be enforced, only that it would be a good one to have. Especially in a time when g…

It's also been suggested that Congressional salaries be a fixed multiple of minimum wage, and for similar reasons. Honestly I think that would probably fix things a lot faster.

Congress already makes more money from cutting deals with their power & influence than they do from their salary...

Re: Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

#44

Post by cj »

tysam_and wrote: post #9

There is an equation with an equilibrium: CEO's pay rate = (some multiplier) * median salaried worker's pay rate OR CEO's pay rate = (some multiplier) * minimum salaried worker's pay rate We've been conditioned to think it's not fair somehow, but the discrepancy is just....engorgingly terrible. I'm not arguing for how this metric would be enforced, only that it would be a good one to have. Especially in a time when g…

IMO an equation like that would be fine as long as you made it possible for CEOs of larger companies to make more money than CEOs of small and medium sized companies.

There’s a job market for C-Suite employees (whether we care to admit it or not). At a certain point you won’t get qualified candidates if you can’t reward them enough, same as engineers or any other role.

The answer for how much CEOs should be paid is the amount of money you would need to pay to employ the most optimal person to run the company. Figuring out what that number is is difficult.

Re: Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

#45

Post by arcticbull »

mschuster91 wrote: post #7
mortureb wrote: post #3

40%? I sincerely wish them the best of luck and I hope they get what is their due but this is probably good news for India, Mexico and China.

So what, nothing prohibits the US and Europe from raising tariffs on industrial products. The pendulum of globalization is bound to swing backwards for a multitude of reasons.

> So what, nothing prohibits the US and Europe from raising tariffs on industrial products.

I mean, there's retaliation. Trade is mutual.

Re: Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

#46

Post by mschuster91 »

thriftwy wrote: post #28
mschuster91 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what, nothing prohibits the US and Europe from raising tariffs on industrial products. The pendulum of globalization is bound to swing backwards for a multitude of reasons.

cough WTO cough

The WTO has been fucked over for years now. Practically they've been kneecapped since 2019 "thanks" to the 45th [1], and even before that, they didn't do much against the clear breaches of good conduct that China committed, and for what it's worth it's not like the actions of the 45th were without good cause, even back under Bush the WTO was infamous for being slow as molasses even compared to other international organizations and having failed to update their rulebook because everyone and their dog kept vetoing stuff.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/dec/25/austr...

Re: Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

#47

Post by r3trohack3r »

econperplexed wrote: post #8

> From 1978 to 2021, CEO pay grew by 1,460%, adjusted for inflation, versus just 18.1% for the typical worker. Why has the supply of CEOs not kept up with the demand for them? Surely, with the improvement in education and in increase in MBA programs, there must be far more CEOs today than in 1978. Why has the ratio of CEOs to Companies fallen by 14x for their wages to rise this much? /s As many argue, wages are only…

Not all jobs have quantitative measures for impact. The more a job is decoupled from a measurable value, the more likely that job is to be bid up to "as much as the company can afford."

I've seen this in my career, the closer I get to "SRE" or "platform engineer" the more decoupled my salary has become from my actual measurable value.

I'd articulate the thinking as, roughly:

We know this role is important. We know that having a bad SRE team (or CEO or platform team) is expensive, it could cost us the 100% of the business. And we don't know how to measure the value a good one provides. Therefore we are willing to spend as much as we can afford to make sure we get a good one.

Re: Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

#49

Post by chiefalchemist »

econperplexed wrote: post #8

> From 1978 to 2021, CEO pay grew by 1,460%, adjusted for inflation, versus just 18.1% for the typical worker. Why has the supply of CEOs not kept up with the demand for them? Surely, with the improvement in education and in increase in MBA programs, there must be far more CEOs today than in 1978. Why has the ratio of CEOs to Companies fallen by 14x for their wages to rise this much? /s As many argue, wages are only…

Yes. But now take CEOs and their pay and map it to company performance and stock performance. Are they skilled at bringing out the best in their company, or squeezing staff wages more and more?

Re: Striking auto workers want a 40% pay increase–the same rate their CEOs’ pay grew

#50

Post by hinkley »

71a54xd wrote: post #37

This kind of logic doesn't help anyone - yes, CEO pay is insane but its that way because of how much risk they take ownership of and shoulder day in day out. If one line worker forgets to tie a wire-harness it's not like the entire company will end up in financial ruin... However, the CEO making serious mistakes can and has cost GM millions.

Do they take ownership though? That hasn't been that way in a while.

Used to be the best warrior had skin in the game. We have them resources so when the lions came or the boars got into the crops, they were ready to kick some ass, even if the rest of us were undernourished due to a drought.

Now they just "take full responsibility" where that just means they have to announce that something dumb happened on camera. Truly a gruesome fate. So brave.

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