• shalafi@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    The understanding of CEO pay is childish around here. Back on reddit I ran the math on American Airlines for giggles. If the CEO took $0 pay, every employee could enjoy a .03 raise.

    Are they overcompensated? My instinct says hell yes. But the math almost always shows that it’s a drop in the bucket. And my “gut feeling” means nothing when the market says, “We think he’s worth $X million a year.” Fuck my feelings. If that’s what the company wants to pay, that’s their prerogative.

    It’s funny how we used to bitch about sports stars making mad bank, and somehow, we just all forgot to complain. Also, when the billionaire pitchforks come out, I’ve never once seen Taylor Swift’s name come up. Huh.

    Lemmy likes to pretend that CEOs do nothing because their vast experience tells them that McDonald’s is far harder work. The CEO can make or break the whole company. Company values and culture flows down from the CEO. How many times have we seen a foolish CEO cost a company 10’s of millions?

    • otp@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      How many times have we seen a foolish CEO cost a company 10’s of millions?

      And how many times have we seen them still get golden parachutes and continue to be successful in life?

      They aren’t the problem, but they’re a symptom. It makes sense that people are angry towards them.

      • tuckerm@supermeter.social
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        11 months ago

        There’s also the fact that the amount they make (plus business culture in general) is going to be creating and reinforcing a God complex in them. I often wonder if a lower salary for CEOs would actually result in them being better decision makers. What if their kids went to the same school as their customers’ kids?

        People of all political ideologies say they want their political leaders to be “in touch” with everyday people; why would we want business leaders to make so much money that they wouldn’t even have to look at an everyday person if they didn’t want to?