When I was a kid, if I got one candy bar for dessert, I was happy as could be. If my brother entered with two candy bars, however, the crime of the century had just occurred.
In terms of evolution, we are preprogrammed to believe in equal sharing. Back when we were all hunter-gatherers, everyone in a tribe shared things equally -- it was vital to survival. But the world we live in is far from that time and place, and oftentimes this disconnect leads to some irrational behavior.
What's this have to do with investing?
In Dan Ariely's brilliant book Predictably Irrational, Ariely shows how humans almost never think of things in absolute terms, but in relative terms. Today's example: CEO pay.
Back in 1993, the government decided that publicly traded companies needed to disclose executive compensation packages. Authorities demanded this because of the growing chasm between the average worker's pay and that of the CEO.
In 1976, a CEO was paid about 36 times the salary of an average worker. By 1993, that number had ballooned to 131 times the average worker's salary.
Source: Predictably Irrational.
The legislation was built on the premise that compensation committees would feel the squeeze from a disgruntled public and rein in their spending.
Did it work? Take a look below.
Source: Predictably Irrational.
The opposite occurred.
Instead of pay going down, growth accelerated: By 2008, the average CEO was making 369 times the salary of the average worker. And instead of an enraged public, we got a room full of enraged CEOs, wanting to know why they weren't paid as much relative to their peer at Cry Babies USA.
CEOs behaving badly
Don't believe me?
Take a look at Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom
Or how about Hercules Offshore's
Not to be outdone is Helix Energy Solutions
Though one could argue that Hercules and Helix have suffered from a large industry downturn in offshore drilling, the question remains: Why should these CEOs be so handsomely compensated when the company's financials are deteriorating?
Our CEO heroes
As Ariely points out in his book, this incessant focus on compensation serves to distract CEOs from their actual job: creating value for shareholders. "The more we have, the more we want," Ariely states, "and the only cure is to break the cycle of relativity."
Here are three CEOs who have decided to buck the trend, working for a yearly salary of just $1.
|
CEO & Company |
Annual Salary |
Total Return During Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| Steve Jobs, Apple |
$1 | 8,998%* |
| John Mackey, Whole Foods |
$1 | 2,390%** |
| Larry Page, Google |
$1 | 5%*** |
Source: Google Finance, *Taken from July 1997, when Jobs rejoined Apple. **Mackey has been CEO since the company's 1992 IPO. ***Page started on April 4, 2011.
Clearly, investing in the companies run by these CEOs has been a profitable venture. If you follow Jobs, Mackey, and Page, you know that all three are passionate to a fault about their company. Jobs continues to create devices we need to have; Mackey's message of conscious capitalism is taking hold; and Page runs a company whose mission statement includes, "You can make money without doing evil."
Foolish takeaway
Maybe I'm painting with too wide a brush. Some CEOs definitely deserve their salaries. Ford
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