In principal, I don't have a problem with high levels of compensation for those who have earned it. What value does one put on a senior managment team which builds a company that can compete effectively on a global level? This can create thousands or tens of thousands of jobs, and many billions of dollars for the US economy.

With that said, however, most CEOs are in a no-lose situation. They make a great deal of money no matter how well or how poorly they perform. This is bad for everyone involved... except the CEO.

Duane

I posted this on August 5th, and in my opinion it is the true root of the problems we are facing today.

I heard on the news last night that some banks were given incentives to give loans to those who were poor risk, just give out the cash. Now who in their right mind would loan money to someone who obviously could not afford to pay it back; the answer is those who wanted to make a quick buck. But where were those who were supposed to be making the intelligent decisions?

CEO, and others were simply guided by greed and instant profit, and they should simply be held accountable. 

I just hope we learn from this, and put the proper safeguards in place to prevent greed from sending us into another depression.

Have a great weekend!......marc

Now in a lot of countries, this gross inequality would have brought protestors out into the streets.  But it didn’t happen in the United States.  Why?  One reason is that, thanks to Alan Greenspan, Americans were able to use their houses as ATM machines and go into debt instead of demanding higher salaries.  But now that option is no longer available and the American public—and their politicians—have suddenly discovered these abuses and are clamoring for “something to be done.”

The Netherlands has already “done something.” According to the French financial daily Les Echos, on September 9, 2008, the country implemented a new law affecting senior executives of the 90 largest Dutch companies.  The law will be implemented on January 1, 2009, and imposes heavy taxes on executives collecting “golden parachutes”: any executive earning more than 500,000 Euros a year will pay additional taxes as high as 30%.

Perhaps American lawmakers can take a cue from their Dutch colleagues.

Jagor

American politicans at every level of government ,local,county,state and federal are very much to blame for these outrageous pay and compensation CEO'S ARE TAKIN DOWN .like one of the posterd has said 4 day and 5 hours of doing little more than sittin on your ass and saying  NAY OR YAY .THEN QUICKLY DRIVE TO the golf course for a liquid  lunch with friends and doing the absolute minimum of work .Andtwice a year send out a flyer telling taxpayers how much you have accomplised,and gettin away with it year after year after year has proven a very lucrative policy.And coupled with all the NON ANYONE  TO ANSWER TO,AND all the other lieing ,cheating ways and means they have of helping themselves to taxpayer freebies on working time.And then flaunt this attitude and way of conduct to others.OTHERS pick up on this silent way say nothing and figure HEY IF HE CAN DO IT ,SO CAN I.try pullin this stunt at a time clock job 2-3 times during the summer months and your out the door.

  A READER

There are a lot of inequities in life.

The person growing, picking, or preparing the food you consume makes bottom wages.

You are trusting your health and life to this person.

Yet we will consume this food while watching a TV personality that makes a huge salary; so much so that it shocks us.

This same TV face spews what is known to be biased or slated news, yet they continue to exists and make big bucks.

How can this happen or continue?

Rossby

So here's my suggestion to right the wrong and put things back into balance:  I divided $17,000.00 by 40 and I got $425.00.  So my new minimum wage would be $425.00 per hour.  Or, if you used a ratio of 30-to-one, you would get a minimum wage of $556.66 per hour.  That should be enough to enable us "ordinary Americans" the politicans keep talking about to pay our mortgage payments and have enough left over to fill up the car with gas.

Or, of course, you could go the other way and pay the CEO's 30 times the minimum wage of $6.55 per hour. That that would give the plutocrats a nice fat paycheck of $196.50 per hour--which is probably a heck of a lot more than most of them deserve.  Or, at 40-to-1 you can give them a generous pay package of $262.00 per hour. 

How many people would benefit from my new minimum wage?  

The Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, according to Current Population Survey estimates for 2007, 75.9 million American workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 58.5 percent of all wage and salary workers.

Of course, there's one CEO who would be getting a big pay raise under my plan: Richard Kinder, CEO of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, which I am proud to own, collects an annual salary of $1.00. That is correct: one single U.S.dollar.  In fact, Richard Kinder is so good that Morningstar picked him as their CEO of the year in 2005!  

Jagor 

Must Read: 

FREE LUNCH - How the wealthiest Americans enrich themselvs at government expense(and stick you with the bill) By David Cay Johnston

I *hate* stock options to company executives, which are often referred to as "incentive plans".

Why do the highest paid people in a company need an incentive to produce good work?  Isn't having the highest pay a sufficient incentive?

I *hate* share repurchase programs.  Please do *not* explain the theories to me.  I've been investing for 30+ years, and I am well aware of the theories.

Share repurchase programs are a sleazy trick designed to keep cash out of the pockets of small shareholders.  Nowadays, a company with excess cash typically decides to churn shares. Options to management—share repurchase program (funded by the shareholders)—options to management—share repurchase program (funded by the shareholders). Repeat over and over again ad nauseam.

I *hate* golden parachutes.

What do I truly believe?  Golden parachutes are actually "hush money" so executives won't publicize the fact that they trashed their company on orders from their board of directors.

NOT as OUTRAGEOUS as medical professionals

 http://www.cnbc.com/id/26264538/26264538

14 out of the 16 highest paying jobs in the US are from medical/healthcare field. CEO's and Pilots are the only non-medical professions there.

btw, i never knew that avg. ceo pay in the us is only 150K. hardly outrageous compared to the average dentist pay here..CMON !!