In 2003, CEOs of the 365 largest U.S. corporations were paid on average $8 million, 301 times as much as factory workers. This paper asks whether CEOs get paid too much. Appealing to widely recognized moral values, I distinguish three views of justice in wages: the agreement view, the desert view, and the utility view. I argue that, no matter which view is correct, CEOs get paid too much. I conclude by offering two ways CEO pay might be reduced.
Business Ethics Quarterly (BEQ) is the journal of the Society for Business Ethics and the leading scholarly journal in its field. It publishes scholarly articles from a variety of disciplinary orientations that focus on the general subject of the application of ethics to the international business community. The journal addresses theoretical, methodological, and issue-based questions that can advance ethical inquiry and improve the ethical performance of business organizations. BEQ maintains a contemporary focus on international business and is particularly interested in articles that discuss global business and economic concerns. It is also interested in the value dimensions of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality and culture, and how these factors affect and are affected by business questions. Each volume of BEQ includes topical articles, response articles, and review articles as well as the presidential address delivered at each annual meeting of the Society for Business Ethics.
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Business Ethics Quarterly
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