Ebook: The CEO pay machine: how it trashes America and how to stop it

Today, the pay gap between chief executive officers of major U.S. firms and their workers is higher than ever before. Depending on the method of calculation, CEOs get paid between 300 and 700 times more than the average worker. Such outsized pay is a relatively recent phenomenon, but despite all the outrage, few detractors truly understand the numerous factors that have contributed to the dizzying upward spiral in CEO compensation. Steven Clifford, a former CEO who has also served on many corporate boards, has a name for these procedures and practices: "The CEO Pay Machine." As Clifford sees it, the payment structure for CEOs begins with shared delusions that reinforce one other: Once this groupthink is accepted as corporate dogma, it becomes infinitely harder to see any decision as potentially irrational or dysfunctional. Yet, as Clifford notes, the Pay Machine has caused immeasurable harm to companies, shareholders, economic growth, and democracy itself. He uses real-life examples of the top four CEOs named the highest paid in 2011 through 2014. Clifford examines how board directors and compensation committees have directly contributed to the rising salaries and bonuses of the country's richest executives. What's more, Clifford argues, each of those companies could have paid their CEOs 90 percent less and performed just as well. The CEO Pay Machine is a thorough and incisive critique of an economic issue that affects all American workers.;Heresy -- You get paid like a CEO : a fairy tale -- How the pay machine harms companies and shareholders -- How the CEO pay machine curtails economic growth and weakens democracy -- The CEO pay machine emerges -- The CEO pay machine constructed -- The players -- The highest paid -- How much did he make? -- Four boards -- Collective delusionality -- The market delusion -- The motivation delusion -- The performance delusion -- The alignment delusion -- The fix and how to get there -- Glossary -- Notes -- Index -- About the author.