High CEO Pay
In this essay, I will attempt to reason why in my understanding high CEO pay are unjustified given the rising economic inequality. I will use references from many different philosophical papers concordant to my interpretation of the pivotal concepts depicted in them to support my statements. Before I set out to argue why high executive compensations are not justified given the rising economic inequality, the first part of this essay will explore why I believe the current level of CEO compensations are excessive and unjust in itself and in the second part of the essay I will try to show the implications of higher CEO pay and its role in increasing the economic inequality which makes it unjustified.
It is argued that the CEO compensations are …show more content…
Those people who already hold wealth, here the executives, have the means to create more new sources of wealth generation over the average workers who earn considerably lower and consequentially invest and earn less. This leads to accumulation of capital in the hands of few. The implications of this concentration of wealth is that it also creates inequality of opportunities for the next generation ,thus, making the already wide gap to grow even more (Piketty, 2013). Measures such as very high progressive taxation, positive and regulated technological changes suggested in “Equality, what can be done” (Atkinson, 2015), are sometimes objected to being demotivating for people to work hard because it essentially implies that more you work and earn the more you are taxed. However, this can be argued with support from the Priority view (Parfit, 2013) and Singer’s ideas in “Famine, Affluence and Poverty”. In essence, the Priority view states that even if the better off would suffer some loss it wouldn't affect them much but that transfer would benefit the worse off relatively vastly and hence, the benefits of worse off should be prioritised. Singer put forward the preposition in his paper that if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening (here, inequality in terms of pay and opportunities for average workers), without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought to morally to do it. Using it in the context of CEO pay, we can say that the executives themselves must deny excessive pays as it wouldn't do any harm to them but will promote equitable distribution of the earnings amongst employees according to their performance and position in the organisation and also keep the competition fair for this and the coming
It is argued that the CEO compensations are …show more content…
Those people who already hold wealth, here the executives, have the means to create more new sources of wealth generation over the average workers who earn considerably lower and consequentially invest and earn less. This leads to accumulation of capital in the hands of few. The implications of this concentration of wealth is that it also creates inequality of opportunities for the next generation ,thus, making the already wide gap to grow even more (Piketty, 2013). Measures such as very high progressive taxation, positive and regulated technological changes suggested in “Equality, what can be done” (Atkinson, 2015), are sometimes objected to being demotivating for people to work hard because it essentially implies that more you work and earn the more you are taxed. However, this can be argued with support from the Priority view (Parfit, 2013) and Singer’s ideas in “Famine, Affluence and Poverty”. In essence, the Priority view states that even if the better off would suffer some loss it wouldn't affect them much but that transfer would benefit the worse off relatively vastly and hence, the benefits of worse off should be prioritised. Singer put forward the preposition in his paper that if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening (here, inequality in terms of pay and opportunities for average workers), without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought to morally to do it. Using it in the context of CEO pay, we can say that the executives themselves must deny excessive pays as it wouldn't do any harm to them but will promote equitable distribution of the earnings amongst employees according to their performance and position in the organisation and also keep the competition fair for this and the coming