CEOs were paid 290x their typical worker in 2023. This isn't because execs are more valuable — they've gamed the system. Corporations spent $800B on stock buybacks last year, which artificially boost share prices. Stock-based pay made up ~70% of CEO compensation. Hello?

So true.

That sort of buyback to manipulate prices used to be illegal. CEOs can just commit a crime any time they have the cash (say by layoffs or government handouts) to make the company buy them a raise at the expense of the actual value of the company. Sick.

I’ll often note that we are meant to see money as a stand in for value. But by that standard, imagine a CEO standing before almost 300 of their employees and stating they are more valuable than all of them combined to justify their compensation. I doubt they would make it out of the room unscathed.

As long as executive remuneration, esp bonuses, is built upon share price and profit, nothing will change.

It’s like the harder you work the less you are paid. 😲