CEOs are not paid based on productivity. Maybe this is the confusion. Their stock options are certainly based on company performance (right?), but their salary is dictated by market conditions and the availability of CEOs, not by the number of widgets produced by them or their company.
If it was possible to hire a Lou Gerstner for $250,000/year, then everyone would. But it's not possible. The Lou Gerstners of the world are not available at that price.
You could, however, get a Flex Gunship for that price. Maybe you could even get a Bacle2 for that price. But IBM, Morgan Stanley, Boeing, Toys R' Us, and Ford would look at my resume and say: "Wait, how many multi-national companies have you successfully led? None?" And I might say: "But I'm 100% certain I can do it and I'm 200% certain I could do it better than your current CEO!" And they would (correctly) respond: "I don't think so. We need more proof than that."
Really think about that. CEOs and directors are a small circle of individuals
not because they're exclusionary, but out of simple necessity. The list of people who are
manifestly able to run a company is very small. Much smaller than the list of people who are
actually able to run a company.
These salaries exist because, if you can walk in and show
proof (or better yet, be recognized) that you can keep a company going (even at a conservative and stable 2% loss) you are an asset of immense value and people are going to compete to have you. Sometimes they will offer $60 million to have you.
Real increase in salary is flat since 1973 because the "real" (private) economy has been roughly flat since then. Inflation adjusted GDP has grown an average of about 3% annually since 1970. The average inflation adjusted household income has grown about 1% annually since 1970. The average inflation adjusted tax rate increase has been about 5% annually since 1970; if you split that in half (45% of that 5% comes from corporate taxes) you see that the actual growth of wages SHOULD be about nothing (after adjusting or inflation and including increases in taxes). Essentially, every increase in inflation-adjusted GDP has been accompanied by an equivalent increase in taxes on corporations and on their employees.
Sources: (
http://www.econedlink.org/lessons/index.php?lid=808&type=student, http://www.heritage.org/federalbudget/growth-federal-spending , http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3822)
And a board can remove a CEO easily. It happens at a lot of companies very often (every 5 years or so). Likewise, the board can be changed out by investors or by the CEO in some cases. The book
Who Says Elephants Can'T Dance is a prime example of this. If you're curious to see how an actual company goes through the process of removing a CEO and replacing him, rad that book. It's one of my favorite business books because there's a genuine narrative.
Only that no company has ever, intentionally, hired a discount CEO. If there was an example of Joe Blow the newbie CEO coming in for $45,000 and keeping a company running, then you'd have your datapoint. Granted, it wouldn't really establish a trend.
A good example are the business savants (Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, etc) who start out making nothing, but are quick to reap the benefits of their successes. They don't shy away from the rewards of being superlative.
I don't know which data you're referring to. I just went back through all of your posts in this thread. Did I miss it?
Regardless, if people are unhappy with their earnings, they should seek new employment. That's how employment market demand works. I did it when I left my previous employer, the my employer before that, and before that, and before that...
However,
if there's a legitimate decrease in the value of skills in the marketplace, then there's really nothing you can do about it. Either the market is flooded with those skills, or new sources of those skills are uncovered. The U.S. used to be a manufacturing power house, until those skills were learned by others who were willing to do it cheaper... then we priced ourselves out of that market.
I suppose. I'll offer to take any senior executive position at ANY company for $250,000, right now, today.