Maybe I’m exaggerating.  Maybe this isn’t our biggest mistake, but, baby, it is a big one in my book.

How did we let CEO pay go from 40X the lowest paid employee to 400X plus?

“But, Ron, we didn’t have that much influence on the decision.”  “But, Ron, the board approved these compensation packages.”  “But, Ron, we just reacted to what the executive compensation survey told us.”  “But, Ron, our HR consulting firm advised us that we had to do this.”  “But, Ron we couldn’t attract good CEO candidates without a competitive salary offering.”

Whatever happened, we had to be co-conspirators on this one.  The media is having a field day about executive pay.  One more time, Wall Street, free enterprise, business, capitalism are all dirty words.  

Don’t get me wrong.  I think that people should get paid handsomely for doing a great job.  CEOs who are running good companies which are financially sound, should reap the rewards, but excessive is excessive and we in Human Resources have some responsibility to maintain sanity in our programs.