Who's
believable about CEO pay?
By IR Web Report
Staff
A CEO lobby group has attacked the media's portrayal
of their compensation with a report claiming the
pay is fair -- but the group's research is being
called into question.
On Wednesday, the Business Roundtable
issued a
news release saying that growth in CEO pay
has trailed shareholder returns. It also attacked
media coverage of executive pay for being distorted,
misleading, oftentimes erroneous, sensational,
inaccurate and unfair.
Basically, they say it's crap.
In reply, Huffington Post
writer Eric J. Weiner has attacked
the research as being biased and based on
spurious assumptions. He asks why the report
has no examples of the media's mishandling and
calls the report's central argument "a
crock."
"By starting in 1995 the CEOs are using pre-Internet
bubble stock prices to boost their return comparisons,"
Weiner writes, adding: "The real trouble is
that imperial CEOs have become utterly divorced
from rank-and-file workers and have come to
feel entitled to completely separate standards
of pay."
Companies face a challenge trying to communicate
how their executives are paid. Certainly there's
nothing wrong with explaining why the directors
think the pay is fair and how they come to their
conclusions. However, those arguments need to
be clear
and transparent — even if they're not
defensible.
Read our