I do not think this argument should even be relevant. CEO's should make and receive far more money then share holders of a company as the CEO most likely owns far more shares. The CEO has more experience with the company and should have more authority then everyone else. Share holders hold very small pieces of a company and should only receive an equivalent portion to what they own. The owner of the company is most responsible for the company doing well and not well. When the company does poorly the share holders are more then happy to blame it on the CEO and not share the blame but when things are going well they want the benefits. I find it almost comical that the idea of jail time and loss of salary is being thrown around as the money being made is not the share holders but simply have their hand out asking for more.
The argument of CEO's of companies and top executives making too much money has begun to grow old to me. These individuals have worked hard to put themselves and their business where they are and should be the ones to receive the most profits. Not everything has to be fair and some deserve to make more money then others.
Lastly, I find it interesting that this is occurring in Switzerland as they have a reputation of hiding and allowing those who may not rightfully have money hide it. Out of all the places something like this could arise from, I would not have suspected Switzerland.
It's actually not that surprising on one level that this is occurring in Switzerland, because this is actually a move, arguably, to strengthen ownership rights. It is actually shareholders, not CEOs, who own companies. To have a share actually means to own a piece of stock, to have a legal right to a stake in the corporation and its profits. CEOs may also own stock, but many do not own a majority stake, and many are not the founders of the companies they run. They are merely executive officers, in charge, but ultimately answerable to shareholders. If they actually owned the majority of the shares, this law wouldn't be an issue for them--they could actually just vote to set their pay at whatever level they chose.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, but what about the workers? We talk about how much effort the CEO put in to lead the company, but what about all if those who made it work? While I agree that the CEO as the leader should receive more of the share of profits, I think we should also focus on more fair compensation to the workers for their inputs that counted for profitability.
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