These companies paid their employees a median wage of $31,672 in 2022, while their CEOs took home an average $15.3m
Absolutely. You might compare their work, which janitors generally work themselves to the bone and have to deal with filth, while CEOs have to deal with stress. What about retirement? People who work manual labor generally destroy their bodies and have terrible quality of life after retirement or just in later years in general, CEOs get to walk away with their health. Work is work. If they put in equal effort they should make an equal wage.
So when a company decides to compensate employees, your belief is that the janitor who has minimal responsibilities and training for that job provides the same value as the one who had to earn a degree for the position, is actively trying to expand the company, which has an added benefit of hiring new employees, among many other factors?
Here’s a real world example. I train people to do the job and meet the standards I require for my company. They start out with no or minimal skills, I provide the knowledge so they can do the work. Should I not be compensated more than them even though I’ve invested my time and money in them? Should they not be compensated more than the brand new hire even though they have more skills and seniority? Or do we all make the same since we all ‘give it our all’?