Over the last two years the overall total compensation of the highest-paid executive increased 20.5 percent while revenues increased 2.8 percent. As of February 2008, the average top executive received overall total compensation of $18,813,697, according to the study. In comparison, the median pay for workers rose only 3.5 percent to $36,140 in 2007, from $34,892 the previous year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Those are startling numbers when the state of the American economy is taken into consideration. Companies who receive bailout money are contemplating buying new company jets and going on company trips to Las Vegas. The same executives and board of directors who placed their companies in such dire economic unrest are being rewarded with bonuses, yet thousands of average Americans workers are loosing jobs and homes; and in some cases lives.
President Obama is suggesting putting a limit to how much companies receiving bailout money can pay their top executives. Under the current circumstances the American people would approve of such a decision; however it does go against the economic principles Americans hold dear.
In her commentary “Government shouldn't decide executive pay” Carly Fiorina chief executive of Carly Fiorina Enterprises and former chief executive of HP, introduces a number of solid suggestions on how the problem of executive pay can be fixed.
Should Government Dictate Executive Pay?
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