JOURNAL OF LEADERSHIP, ACCOUNTABILITY AND ETHICS
Ceo Pay in Perspective
Author(s): Marcel Boyer
Citation: Marcel Boyer, (2021) "Ceo Pay in Perspective," Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, Vol. 18, Iss. 3, pp 36-73
Article Type: Research paper
Publisher: North American Business Press
Abstract:
The CEO pay ratio, measured as the ratio of CEO pay over the median salary of a firm’s employees, is themost often quoted number in the popular press. This ratio has reached 281 this last year for S&P500 firms,the largest US firms by capitalization (as of November 21, 2019). But the B-ratio I proposed here, measuredas the CEO pay over the total payroll of the firm, relates CEO pay to the salary of each employee and maybe the most relevant and informative figure on CEO pay as perceived by the firm’s employees themselves.How much a typical employee of the S&P500 firms implicitly “contributes” to the salary of his/her CEO?An amount of $273 on average or 0.5% of one’s salary, that is, one half of one percent on an individualsalary basis. To assess whether such a contribution is worthwhile, one must determine the value of the CEOfor the organization and its workers and stakeholders. The Appendix provides the data for all 500 firmsregrouped in 10 industries (Bloomberg classification).