Forum Post: Suggestion: Wage Guidelines
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 17, 2011, 10:54 a.m. EST by bedazzled123
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Kudos to everybody in this movement. I really applaud you.
I just joined this website today with this idea that keeps going through my mind.
Some of the problems inherent in our capitalistic system might be solved with wage guidelines (like in unions) such as the top person can't make more than 20x the bottom person.
So that wages are moving together in relation to each other. And maybe the benefits and options have to spread to everybody.
Well, that's my idea. I think it could really help wages to increase and people to work together for the whole.
All the best to all!!!
I don't think many people would go for that, though how about something less extreme though along the same lines of thought.
Make income above 100x the federal minimum wage non-exempt from corporate income tax so that it's double taxed. This would incentivise corporations to put their money to more practical things like hiring more personnel or increasing research funding as opposed to more increases to executive salaries. Though if they really do need to compete for the best CEO then they can, though they simply have to tax the extra income as profit.
increase the pay of the ceo then, and reduce the wages of the workers. that keeps the costs neutral.
good ceo's are hard to come by. good workers are replaceable.
Ben and Jerry's tried that for their CEO: result was no competent CEO would take the job.
The market doesn't work like that - there is a competition for skills and ability which drives up the cost of the good or service. In this case being a good CEO who will devote 80+ hours a week to the company and have the foresight and people skills to manage it well are exceedingly rare. That means the price for the service is exceedingly high.
That isn't going to change unless we get more people out there with those skills who want to be CEO's.
I don't think I would use foresight and CEO in the same sentence. That's a reflection of Wall St. culture more than anything, though. There's no room for long term strategies, it ends up being NOW NOW NOW for everything, for the sake of the stock price.
Yes and that has to change, as a shareholder I want long term planning to be fundamental in my investments.
However that SC ruling that mandated boards look only for short term profits has really done a number on these things. Gotta reverse that position before we can really expect change. I wouldn't give up my life for years to make money just to risk having it sued out from under me if I didn't always consider current shareholder profits for next quarter and I made a long term growth investment.
CEO pay does not predict performance, which is research I found interesting. The competition isn't quite working as the theory says it should. If you haven't read Pay without Performance, you might find it intriguing.
unfortunately, not everyone is born to be a CEO. like how not everyone is born to be A Rod.
Indeed but there must be some out there who can do it who choose to do other things with their lives like spend time with their families. If only they choose to be a CEO we could lower CEO pay.