Midwest

Outlandish CEO Pay: How to Fix the Problem

Maybe this is too simple of a solution but it has its merits.

Only pay the CEO with profit that they actually helped generate. No stock options at all. No grants. No perks. No gross ups...

If you actually made a profit, then you get a share of that profit. Kind of how it works for everybody else in this world.

Sure, this could lead to window dressing and other sorts of problems but CEOs are more and more hesitant to overstate earnings for fear of straight up fraud allegations. Clawbacks would have to be in place in case of errors or lying.

No profit = smaller paychecks.

CEO pay coming off the bottom line would also generate far more interest from shareholders as they watch profit distributed to executives instead of themselves.

No more stock options. They're a crime waiting to happen. They're not incentives, they're theft from shareholders.