Capping executive salaries is a good idea in theory, and I've put some thought into it. From where I'm standing, the only way you could do it fairly would be to make executive salaries only a certain percentage higher than their lowest paid full time employee. That percentage would be the issue, but it would certainly limit the amount multi-national corporations could pay their execs, but still allow them to pay the sort of money which is usually comensurate with the knowledge and experience required to fill such positions.

eta: This system would obviously very likely improve the salaries paid to lower income earners which could be a good thing. Kind of like re-distributing the wealth. ;)

Only that in a free market the government can't steal the profits made by the company. So even if the salaries are capped, the profits will go to the shareholders. Many employers and employees are shareholders.

I don't have any issue with shareholders reaping the benefits of their shares. I wouldn't consider the issue of profit from shares to be the same as salary.

eta: Major shareholders should be held accountable for the decisions they influence though.

Limiting pay is not a good idea in any way.

Sounds like a good idea, but those who work the system the way it is now, would find a way to do it again. Not saying something shouldn't be done, but I think if we were to put a limitation on executives at all companies, we would have to limit wages all the way down to the janitors or we would end up finding a lot of slimy personnel records ten or twenty years down the road (I'm thinking instead of executives, they would take different titles, but have the same influence on the company behind the scenes.) And really, nobody wants to be limited to what they can earn...not by some other entity like the government. Would it be fair to limit the wages an admin makes? Or a sales person? Once we go there, we have fallen pretty far down that slippery slope and we are still stuck to stagnant wages for everyone.

Maybe I am just cynical, but I don't think we can force the kind of people who have that much greed to change.

I do think we should change things like not allowing CEOs to be chairmen of the board. I worked for HP when Fiorina was in charge and always felt there was something wrong with that. Too much trust put into one person who hadn't really proved she deserved it.

From what I can tell, most lower paid and middle income workers already have to suffer the pay limitations of their job, regardless of how good they are or how hard they work.

Why should the same not apply to all levels?

And I think that is actually going to get much worse as more people are out of work, people will be forced to put up with more crap from the boss and poor work conditons just to put food on the table.

Yep. absolutely.

It's a crying shame how much bullying goes on in the workplace!

Yes, I agree to a point. A lot of wages for lower and middle income earners have have remained stagnant. And not because they don't work hard enough. But not all have been this way. And not for as long as it seems. For instance, my husband makes significantly more than he did 10 years ago, but he has the same title and does the same thing. There are some in his field that make more then he does and some that make less. Now, if someone came in and said "Hey, XXX is the new limit to what Sys Analysts can make" and it was less than his wage? Yeah, he and everyone who makes what he makes or more get a cut in pay. Sucks. So, how motivated is he going to be to get better at what he does? What kind of pride will people have in their work if there is no hope for advancement? I agree that the salaries are out of wack and I know that was anecdotal, but I believe there are a lot of those people out there, too.

I agree. Employers are pretty terrible sometimes...and they get away with a lot, even with laws and limitations.

That's a good point case.

I think the issue still needs addressing, although it's very likely that executive salaries will be normalized in due course thanks to the financial situation we're all facing.

I am already seeing and hearing fallout over the current economic conditions.

Ask anyone in the work force today how many times they have heard, "It's good to be employed." in the last 4 months.

Hey, I agree about Congress. But the people in Congress don't make millions of dollars. I think BOTH Congress and the market need some serious adjusting.

No one has to suffer the pay limitations of their job. Each and every person is free to believe they are worth more. Some people just decide to do something with that belief.

I have actually proposed this before, because the real problem is that fact that executives in the US now make almost 500x more than the average worker. Bring that back down to where it should be and where it is in other countries, which more like 30%. And that is where it used to be in this country as well.