# Why CEOs and executives are paid more than workers?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ceos-and-executives-are-paid-more-than-workers/185826>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 2, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ceos-and-executives-are-paid-more-than-workers/185826 "2003-07-02T17:58:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 6

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ceos-and-executives-are-paid-more-than-workers/185826/101 "2003-07-08T09:47:56Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by litost \*  
> As far as I can tell, it has been one of the dominant themes in your posts and in the analytical studies you have excerpted from -the fact that board members have mutual interests and relationships with CEOs which hinder their objectivity.

Well, I interpreted the ‘old boys’ comment in a rather narrower and more pejorative sense, if we’re putting it in the context of too many cross cutting connexions and not enough independence then I agree.

> [@](#):
>
> Of course, these need not necessarily arise as a result of an old-boys-network but the _effect_, that is, the relationship between the board and the CEO which inspires covert deals etc, is pretty much the same.

Indeed, on the first comment, which is why I took exception to the manner in which Sam put this.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2003, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ceos-and-executives-are-paid-more-than-workers/185826/102 "2003-07-08T11:59:52Z")

</div>

Re: CEO compensation inequalities as a fucntion of boom and bust market cycles:

I do not see how the EO overcompensation issue will be affected by market cycles when, as has been demonstrated repeatedly, it’s not even affected by the success or failure of the firms they are managing.

Does anybody have any ideas for ways to correct the problem? I would think the most direct would be steep economic penalities and maybe even jail time in some instances (Enron, WorldCom Halliburton) for directors who fail to exercise basic oversight. I suspect the CEO/Boardmember relationship would be considerably less chummy if letting the CEO run riot had a direct, negative effect on the income of the boardmembers in charge of them.

Another approach might be to enable shareholders to sue boardmembers individually for gross overcompensation of a CEO and other forms of bad oversight. I’m sure they can already do that, but I doubt their chances of winning are very high – perhaps the establishment of clearer legal standards of liabiity for  
boardmembers would help.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-ceos-and-executives-are-paid-more-than-workers/185826.md?page=5)