Bloomberg reports that a recent study reports that the average CEO of an S&P 500 company earns 331 times more than an average employee per year.
Specifically, according to the article:
“Chief executives of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index made an average $11.7 million last year. The average production and nonsupervisory worker: $35,239.”
3 Questions That Arise From This Story
1. As Derek Jeter’s 2014 salary is $12 million, who is getting better value for their money: baseball fans or customers of a company that makes baseballs and gloves? To think about this, Rawlings, a division of Jarden Corp, has a CEO who makes $8.71 million per year, according to Yahoo Finance. Derek Jeter is hitting .286 at the time of this post. But what would he be hitting if he didn’t have a baseball to hit? Exactly. We say the CEO is better value.
2. What new and exciting innovations have come to baseballs over the past 100 years that justify a CEO of a company that manufactures baseballs making $8.71 million per year? We would have wagered 100 years ago that in an innovative world, that by 2014, baseballs would be able to call their own strikes and balls, and detect performance-enhancing drugs just by whizzing by a sweaty baseball player. And since that’s what we would have wagered, that’s why we never bet on sports.
3. “Hey, that idea for baseballs was pretty innovative! Why don’t you form a company featuring 331 co-CEOs with engineering degrees to try to invent that?” Hey, baseball just got the instant replay, so we’re going to have to patiently await our high-tech baseball dream for another 100 years.
Who is more overpaid: Derek Jeter, your favorite corporation’s CEO, or the bank machine you keep paying tips to? Tell us in the comments below!
