首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
In 1965, America’s big companies had a hell of a year. The stock market was booming. Sales were rising briskly, profit margins w
In 1965, America’s big companies had a hell of a year. The stock market was booming. Sales were rising briskly, profit margins w
admin
2015-01-10
94
问题
In 1965, America’s big companies had a hell of a year. The stock market was booming. Sales were rising briskly, profit margins were fat, and corporate profits as a percentage of GDP were at an all-time high. Almost half a century later, some things look much the same: big American companies have had a hell of a year, with the stock market soaring, margins strong, and profits hitting a new all-time high. But there’s one very noticeable difference. In 1965, CEOs at big companies earned on average about 20 times as much as their typical employee. These days, CEOs earn about 270 times as much.
That huge gap between the top and the middle is the result of a boom in executive compensation, which rose 876 per cent between 1978 and 2011. In response, we’ve had a host of regulatory reforms designed to curb executive pay. The latest of these is a rule, unveiled by the SEC last month, requiring companies to disclose the ratio of the CEO’s pay to that of the median worker. The idea is that, once the disparity is made public, companies will be less likely to award outsized pay packages.
Faith in disclosure has been crucial to the regulation of executive pay since the 1930s. More recently, rules have made companies detail the size and the structure of compensation packages and have enforced transparency about the kinds of comparisons they rely on to determine salaries. The result is that shareholders today know far more about CEO compensation than ever before. There’s only one problem: even as companies are disclosing more and more, executive pay keeps going up and up.
This isn’ t a coincidence: the drive for transparency has actually helped fuel the spiralling salaries. For one thing, it gives executives a good idea of how much they can get away with asking for. A more crucial reason, though, has to do with the way boards of directors set salaries. As Charles Elson and Craig Ferrere write, boards at most companies use what’ s called " peer benchmarking. " They look at the CEO salaries at peer-group firms, and then peg their CEO’s pay to the 50th, 75th, or 90th percentile of the peer group—never lower. This leads to the so-called Lake Wobegon effect: every CEO gets treated as above average. "Relying on peer-group comparisons, the way boards do, mathematically guarantees that pay is going to go up," Elson told me.
On top of this, peer-group comparisons aren’ t always honest: boards can be too cozy with CEOs and may tweak the comparisons to justify overpaying. A recent study shows that boards tend to include as peers companies that are bigger than they are and that pay CEOs more. The system is skewed by so-called "leapfroggers," the few CEOs in a given year who, whether by innate brilliance or by dumb luck, end up earning astronomical salaries. Those big paydays reset the baseline expectations for everyone else.
This isn’t just an American problem. Nor is it primarily a case of boards being helplessly in thrall to a company’ s executives. Boards are far more independent of management than they used to be, and it’s notable that a CEO hired from outside a company—typically gets 20 to 25 per cent more than an inside candidate. The real issues are subtler, though no less insidious. Some boards remain convinced of what Elson calls "superstar theory": they think that CEOs can work their magic anywhere, and must be overpaid to stay. In addition, Elson said, "if you pay below average, it makes it look as if you’d hired a below-average CEO, and what board wants that?"
Transparent pricing has perverse effects in other fields. In a host of recent cases, public disclosure of the prices that hospitals charge for various procedures has ended up driving prices up rather than down. And the psychological causes in both situations seem similar. We tend to be uneasy about bargaining in situations where the stakes are very high: do you want the guy doing your neurosurgery, or running your company, to be offering discounts? Better, in the event that something goes wrong, to be able to tell yourself that you spent all you could. And overspending is always easier when you’ re spending someone else’ s money. Corporate board members are disbursing shareholder funds; most patients have insurance to foot the bill.
Sunlight is supposed to be the best disinfectant. But there’ s something naive about the new SEC rule, which presumes that full disclosure will embarrass companies enough to restrain executive pay. As Elson told me, "People who can ask to be paid a hundred million dollars are beyond embarrassment. " More important, as long as the system for setting pay is broken, more disclosure makes things worse instead of better. We don’t need more information. We need boards of directors to step up and set pay themselves, instead of outsourcing the job to their peers. The rest of us don’ t get to live in Lake Wobegon. CEOs shouldn’t, either.
The author makes a comparison between today’s America with that of 1965______.
选项
A、to show the connection between the growth of stock market and profit margins
B、to demonstrate the development of American companies
C、to expose the increasing profit margins of businesses
D、to display the widening gap in income between the CEOs and average employees
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/rxSO777K
本试题收录于:
NAETI高级口译笔试题库外语翻译证书(NAETI)分类
0
NAETI高级口译笔试
外语翻译证书(NAETI)
相关试题推荐
Atthreethousandfeet,wideplainsbegintoappear,andthereisneveramomentwhensomedistantmountainisnot________.
Thereceptionwasattendedby________membersofthelocalcommunity.
Itiswellknownthatteenageboystendtodobetter【C1】________maththangirls,thatmalehighschoolstudentsaremorelikely
Itiswellknownthatteenageboystendtodobetter【C1】________maththangirls,thatmalehighschoolstudentsaremorelikely
AlthoughtherearemanyskillfulBraillereaders,thousandsofotherblindpeoplefinditdifficulttolearnthatsystemTheyar
AlthoughtherearemanyskillfulBraillereaders,thousandsofotherblindpeoplefinditdifficulttolearnthatsystemTheyar
当年为了实现乌拉圭回合,各个成员费了很大劲儿,但事后的结果并不乐观,世界经济更不平衡,两极分化越加严重。面对这一现象,发展中国家不能容忍,发达国家也感到了危机。正因为如此,大家才把多哈回合定为发展回合。这是WTO历史上巨大的进步,也是各个成员富有远见的选择
奥运会主中心区将设在奥林匹克公园内。北京奥林匹克公园位于北京城市中轴线的北端,占地1215公顷,其中有760公顷的森林公园,与北京市著名的中关村大学区、历史风景名胜区和大型住宅区相邻。奥运村、记者村、主新闻中心、国际广播电视中心及14座比赛场馆,中国体育博
A、EliminatingStarvationB、CombatingMalnutritionC、ImportanceofCaloriesD、ImprovingOurDietB1)注意开篇第一句,此句中的关键表达部分往往是全篇讨论的重点内
JohnCiardigothismaster’sdegreefromtheUniversityofMichiganin1939andhaspublishedmorethan40poems.
随机试题
什么是论据?对论证的要求是什么?
Heisquitesurethatit’s______impossibleforhimtofulfillthetaskwithintwodays.
具有荚膜并能引起组织坏死的病原菌为
建设工程设计合同示范文本中,适用于委托专业工程的设计合同条款主要包括( )。
某桥2号墩基础为Ф2m、桩长25m的钻孔灌注桩,地质条件如下:原地面以下依次为黏土、卵砾石、强风化泥岩。地下水位在原地面以下2.5m。采用钢护筒结构。问题:如何制备钻孔用泥浆?
纳税人遗失税务登记证的,应在15日内书面报告主管税务机关,同时申请补办税务登记证。()
高级导游是取得中级导游证又工作满几年才有资格考取的()
正如中国乡村在拥抱现代化的过程中不断嬗变一样,乡村道德也在剧烈变化的大时代里面临()。
根据以下情境材料,回答下列问题。某家体育公司欲在甲省省会乙市体育馆召开一场大型足球对抗赛,参与人数预计在五千人以上。该体育公司向当地公安机关提交了安全许可申请,随后公安机关对活动现场各项条件及设施进行了检查。球赛当天,体育公司发现进入活动场所的观众达
Sportisnotonlyphysicallychallenging,butitcanalsobe【B1】______challenging.Criticismfromcoaches,parents,andotherte
最新回复
(
0
)