All you have to do to earn $42,000 a day, or $11 million each year, is be average.
Wait, when I say “average,” I mean “average CEO.” That’s not so hard to do, right? In 2005, if you were the average CEO, you made 262 times what the average worker made, $41,861 anually.
Critics of CEO pay contend that the compensation committees of publicly traded companies too often fail to tie pay to performance.
CEOs make this kind of money because companies are willing to pay. Shareholders must believe they are worth the big bucks, otherwise they’d vote to change the Board of Directors, right? So this is just the free market at play… maybe.
Published or updated June 21, 2006. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I guess the real question is do the shareholders really have the power to force the board to make changes? I’m not that knowledgeable of the inner workings of it but I’d have to say I’m pretty skeptical.