Don't Mess With CEO Pay

Images of overpaid executives now overshadow the reality of thousands of successful companies with appropriately paid executives and conscientious boards. Instead, fresh accusations of CEOs collecting huge amounts of undeserved pay appear daily, fueling a full-blown mythology of a corporate America ruled by executive greed, fraud and corruption. This mythology consists of two related components: the myth of the failed pay-for-performance model and the myth of the managerial power. It is necessary that we address excesses in executive pay without abandoning the core model, and that the debate be returned to a rational, informed discussion.