I see CEO’s as the last working person in the system. They are at least putting in the time and effort to make money. The are “the last working man/woman” in the chain up to the owners. The real travesty is the owners who get all the money without doing any actual work.
If the CEO makes less money, do you think you’d get more? The answer is no. A company will control costs and not pay employees more than they have to. Your salary has nothing to do with the CEOs salary and at least in theory you have a chance to become CEO… more of a chance than you have of becoming an owner.
The inherited wealth, the hedge funds, the owners… they get all the return. They get all the rewords. Even my boss, who started the company I work at, he makes his money by being an owner. His salary as a CEO is pennies vs his salary owning the company. The success of the company should be shared amongst the employees who made it happen, and the truth is they aren’t. That’s the real kick to the nuts, not the salary of the CEO.
I guess I’ve been lucky enough to work at companies where the CEO worked hard and provided significant benefit to the company. Of course, working hard for a CEO is different than for people lower. Going to dinner with customers, schmoozing with other CEOs, and getting updates from managers, etc. are all important CEO tasks. In every company I’ve worked at in the past 25 years, the CEO puts in more than 40 hours a week, but that 40 hours may be travel or going to nice dinners, etc. I’ve also seen them provide good leadership, good direction, and have been relatively good people. “Relatively good”. Maybe I’ve just been lucky.