> CEOs don’t get paid so much because they are personally unique. [...] CEOs have artificial scarcity because of the hierarchical structure of companies.
They get paid proportional to the impact of their decisions, not in proportion to their scarcity, skill, etc.
If Apple must have someone to make decisions every day that could cost the company millions of dollars, what is the correct amount to compensate that person?
And if Apple were instead a $50M market cap company, would that amount change?
CEO compensation is a combination of "someone has to be in the chair" + "how important are our decisions?" + "how much can we afford to pay."
To reach back to the GP's gripe: if 1 (or even 160,000) assembly workers screw up at their job, it has a much lower impact on Apple as a whole.
They get paid proportional to the impact of their decisions, not in proportion to their scarcity, skill, etc.
If Apple must have someone to make decisions every day that could cost the company millions of dollars, what is the correct amount to compensate that person?
And if Apple were instead a $50M market cap company, would that amount change?
CEO compensation is a combination of "someone has to be in the chair" + "how important are our decisions?" + "how much can we afford to pay."
To reach back to the GP's gripe: if 1 (or even 160,000) assembly workers screw up at their job, it has a much lower impact on Apple as a whole.