Hold CEOs Accountable
A little over two years ago, I wrote "CEO pay is another disaster waiting to happen. One argument frequently advanced for the ridiculous salaries paid to CEOs of US companies is that they are worth it. They improve the value of the company and therefore enrich all the shareholders." Clearly that is not always accurate as we have seen dramatically illustrated recently.
At the time, I linked to a Michael Brush article that documents that European CEOs make half the pay, but do a better job. If US CEOs want the "superstar" status and total credit for the success of the company during their time at the top then they need to be prepared to take an equal amount of the blame when things don't go well, even if "it's not really their fault." And shareholders need to hold them to that.
One of the most valuable things you can do is to be involved if you are a shareholder. What if you are a stakeholder (all employees are), but not a shareholder? You still need to be concerned and get involved. The wider the gap grows between CEO salaries and that of their workers, the more likely the company is to fail. To read more about what you can do, read CEOs Are Overpaid.
What do you think? How should the US handle this crisis of confidence? Click the comments link below and add your thoughts.
Comments
Superstar status for CEO’s is ridiculous. Yes, they usually have drive and vision to direct a company, but without all the common workers under them, their job would never get done. Can you imagine the CEO doing all the work that his underlings do? What happened to teamwork? Teamwork and everyone playing their part successfully is what makes everything work in unison.
Why is is that we (taxpayers) should bail out every Tom, Dick, and Harry that mismanages their business? Aren’t we held accountable to pay our bills and manage our money? Why is this country so forgiving when it comes to a guy (or lady) in a suit?
Taxpayers could also split a $700 Billion bailout between themselves and spend their way out of this economic hardship!
Here! Here! Finally, someone says what I’ve been thinking all along!
CEO’s DO make more money than they are worth. They ususally have a full team of qualified employees that do most if not all the work and the CEO takes the credit. I feel that CEO’s need to be held ‘highly’ accountable for the fall of the company or entity they ’so called’ work for. Also, the board of directors of the entity need to also be held accountable for ‘unsecured or unstable’ finacial decisions. After all, if I were to over spend, I’d loose everything I had, it should be no different for the ‘high rollers’ at the top.
I want to be a CEO one day and earn a lot of money