8,398 people like this remark, yet they don’t think about it and just accept the pandering rhetoric. Robert Reich is about as far left as possible and likes to mislead under-informed people creating more division among us.
How many CEOs with million dollar compensation packages – most not cash – are with corporations that do not pay at least $15.00 an hour?
Do the math on the impact of raising wages for workers in a compared with the pay of the CEO.
Raising wages to $15.00 or any higher minimum has pay implications up the line.
The cost of raising wages is compounded and cumulative in the future. Raising wages is a one way decision, the true cost includes higher employer taxes and higher benefit costs in many cases.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
It is rhetoric. If you take pretty much any S&P CEO’s salary and divide it by the number of employees by 2040 (the number of work hours per year), you get about $.02 an hour… hardly a windfall for employees.
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I generally agree with what you wrote both today and in the past, about comparing CEO and average worker compensation. And, as you have written, its also worth remembering that “CEO” can mean the head of a huge corporation, or a small private business, so generalizing the term “CEO” can be misleading. I do wonder however whether there might be some some mid-level executives who could step in and do a comparable job as CEO for less compensation. Buffett has written in his annual letters that he has hired some 70 or so CEOs to run the numerous businesses owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Their starting compensation package and annual raises are determined, not by a compensation committee, but by him. I think he can accurately judge the performance of a CEO and how that has affected the long term value of the company, without being distracted by short term stock performance, whether quarterly earnings have met the expected target of analysts, or the performance of the market as a whole. And if such performance is worth millions, that is what he will pay. He also mentioned that in the past he served as a director on 20 some corporation boards and guess what? He was never invited to serve on a compensation committee. I wonder why?
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If a CEO is worth their pay is a separate question and I would say there are those clearly not worth what they are paid, but that is an issue for the BOD and shareholders.
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“A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more; otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation.”
Adam Smith
Luckily, an employer doesn’t have to pay a worker enough to maintain him (and reproduce). Welfare, EITC, SNAP, etc., can make up the difference.
The question is, is the government (that’s us) subsidizing the employee, or the employer? Either way, somebody has to pay, or “…the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation.”
Don’t blame the guy at the bottom.
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Ironically, these transfer payments, without which the workman cannot exist, let alone reproduce, can only come from one source. Taxing the CEO.
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Reich is fighting the last war. Although there is no universal $15 hourly minimum, it is common everywhere I look. The lowest starting I have seen on fast food ads and other beginning spots is $13 with quick raises to $15. That is due to lack of workers.
Just because it isn’t government mandated doesn’t mean employers don’t have to pay up for workers. It is also true that increases employer cost for wages and benefits and it is more or less permanent because wages are sticky. It’s not a bad thing, just business.
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Right you are. My 16 year old granddaughter works at a arts center directing parking at $16.00 an hour.
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Twitter and this new Threads deal are where idiots come to play.
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div>They all need to quit wasting time
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Speaking as a small business owner you are 100% correct ! A pay raise causes a ripple effect in payroll taxes, insurance etc..
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