What you individually care about as a shareholder is really not as relevant as you may think. Unless you're holding onto your Apple and Microsoft shares over 30+ years you're not looking at the health of the company from the same perspective as the CEO and Board should be.
Their job is to look out for all shareholders, not just the ones that want to see their portfolio's value increase in the next 5 years.
It's true that the amount CEOs are paid is relatively unimportant, but you're absolutely wrong if you think how they're compensated isn't important. The difference between giving vested stock options vs cash (for example) gives you very a different incentive structure.
> What you individually care about as a shareholder is really not as relevant as you may think.
It's 100% relevant to my buy/sell decisions, and the market aggregate of that is what sets the share price, and that's a very strong signal to management.
Their job is to look out for all shareholders, not just the ones that want to see their portfolio's value increase in the next 5 years.
It's true that the amount CEOs are paid is relatively unimportant, but you're absolutely wrong if you think how they're compensated isn't important. The difference between giving vested stock options vs cash (for example) gives you very a different incentive structure.