I have a terrible problem when I listen to chief executives talking about what they do for the world:how they give people livelihoods; how their fine management has given thousands of people jobs; how families would be destitute were it not for them. My problem is that I thought slavery had ended – quite some time ago.
My contract with the Financial Times requires me to perform certain services, such as this blog – actually it doesn’t, but it requires me to do as the editor says. In return it offers me a salary and some other benefits. Though I haven’t read it for years, I am sure it does not require me to be grateful to the chief executive, or to acknowledge that I would be destitute without the fine management from which I benefit and owe my existence.
But in today’s off-the-record debate about executive compensation, we heard a lot about how good managers create jobs and save lives. It was just as if slavery was still with us.
I asked the panel whether the six-fold rise in average executive compensation relative to base worker pay was due to:
- The fact that executives were monstrously underpaid 20 years ago
- The fact that corporate management had improved six-fold so the pay was deserved
- The fact that the job of CEO was so much worse now that executives now needed extra compensation for their terrible jobs
- Or whether they had collectively exploited market power
None seemed particularly chuffed with the question. But it is genuine. All said the last possibility was correct.
