Focusing on CEO salaries establishes a goal that shareholders can easily (and moreover want to) meet, but it’s the shareholders themselves pulling the strings who must be held to account.
Yes, some CEOs are majority shareholders as well, often those one can name, but they are the exception. Most CEOs are outside hires meant to oversee and take responsibility for a specific agenda (e.g. mergers, layoffs, rebranding initiatives, etc) and the list of CEOs far exceeds that of the actual 0.1% who are toppling democracies and poisoning wells.
Most importantly, shareholders love it when you blame their CEOs for stuff, because they’re paid for that: to be disposable liability magnets. The golden parachutes are hazard pay, an indication of a job well done. Please do pay more attention to the man behind the curtain.
Second PSA: if you want to find the evil, look at the consulting companies. Shareholders benefit, consulting companies like McKinsey come up with ideas like layoffs or return to office and convince shareholders across the board it will make money
Upvoted, but also PSA:
Focusing on CEO salaries establishes a goal that shareholders can easily (and moreover want to) meet, but it’s the shareholders themselves pulling the strings who must be held to account.
Yes, some CEOs are majority shareholders as well, often those one can name, but they are the exception. Most CEOs are outside hires meant to oversee and take responsibility for a specific agenda (e.g. mergers, layoffs, rebranding initiatives, etc) and the list of CEOs far exceeds that of the actual 0.1% who are toppling democracies and poisoning wells.
Most importantly, shareholders love it when you blame their CEOs for stuff, because they’re paid for that: to be disposable liability magnets. The golden parachutes are hazard pay, an indication of a job well done. Please do pay more attention to the man behind the curtain.
Second PSA: if you want to find the evil, look at the consulting companies. Shareholders benefit, consulting companies like McKinsey come up with ideas like layoffs or return to office and convince shareholders across the board it will make money