Slashdot Mirror
Are Bankers Paid Too Much? Are Technology CEOs?
DavidHumus writes with this excerpt from a New York Times article: "Big paydays on Wall Street often come under laserlike scrutiny, while Silicon Valley gets a pass on its own compensation excesses. Why the double standard? The typical director at a Standard & Poor's 500 company was paid $251,000 in 2012, according to Bloomberg News. Mr. Schmidt [Google's CEO] is above that range by over $100 million. ...The latest was the criticism of Jamie Dimon's pay for 2013, given the many regulatory travails of his bank, JPMorgan Chase. The bank's board awarded Mr. Dimon $20 million in pay for 2013, $18.5 million of which was in restricted stock that vests over three years. ...For one, the outsize pay for Mr. Schmidt doesn't square with Google's performance. Putting aside the fact that he is not even the chief executive, Google had net income of $12.9 billion last year. JPMorgan was higher at $17.9 billion...."
DavidHumus notes "Maybe the bigger question is why is CEO pay so entirely disconnected from company performance?"
Seconded, yes.
Here's the difference: technology CEOs run companies that make things and contribute to society. Bankers earn a profit by moving other peoples' money around and taking some off the top. One of those jobs is necessary for us to progress.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
1999-2000 Tech bubble?
The tech bubble crash is really interesting to compare to the banking crash. More money was lost in the tech crash, but the impact on the economy was much less. The reason for this is because in the tech bubble, equity was lost, but in the banking crash, it was debt.
Some economists see this as an indication that banks should be financed the same way tech companies are financed, with shares of stock instead of savings. Hard to say but it's an idea worth thinking about.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Yeah, there is a difference between a guy who bets he can make a company successful and the guy who gets a multi-million dollar salary plus stock options to help him avoid paying taxes.
The first is a rarity. The second is business as usual in US corporations.
Today, the average CEO makes $9.7 million annually, up year after year, while worker salaries are on a steady decline.
Two separate economies. That is not sustainable.
You are welcome on my lawn.