A new study has looked into how drastically we underestimate the paychecks of Australia’s top CEOs, so pop on a bib and grab some cutlery because it’s time to eat the rich.
The study was co-authored by University of Melbourne research fellow Christopher Hoy, who found that on the whole, people dramatically misjudge the wage difference between Australia’s highest-paid executives and us normies on regular, hard-earned wages.
To get to the bottom of this discrepancy, researchers looked at the eye-watering salaries of the top dogs behind the biggest companies on the Australian stock exchange.
They discovered that while these CEOs actually earn more than 100 times as much as the average full-time worker (yes, 1fucking00 times), regular people think they earn just seven times as much.
“When asked what the average CEO earns, most people are astronomically off the mark,” Hoy told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“There is a genuine misunderstanding of just how widespread wage inequality is.”
The findings prove Australians are off the mark in guessing just how much bigger CEOs wallets are compared to our own, but the respondents also sounded off on what they think would be a more appropriate wage gap.
According to the 9,000 people surveyed, the salary of a CEO should be limited to just three times as much as a regular worker, and if that actually happened in Australia, some bosses would take a pay cut that numbers in the tens of millions.
Naturally, the study found strong support for both higher taxes on high-income earners (they aren’t gonna eat themselves) as well as for greater redistribution of wealth to disadvantaged households.
Elsewhere, researchers discovered that while Australia’s top CEOs are making handsome sums in comparison to lower-paid bosses in France, Sweden and Japan, the wealth gap is actually more like a canyon in Britain and the US.
In those countries, CEOs are paid 214 times, and 269 times, more than average workers, respectively.
For Hoy, the results point to our collective misconceptions of just how rich the rich really are. In other words, we aren’t as hungry to eat them as we should be.
“CEOs are clearly getting paid far beyond what people think is socially acceptable,” Hoy said.
“The vast majority of people have a similar view: that wage inequality is far too high, and the richest people should be taxed more.”
So let’s take a look at who’s on our dinner plate, shall we?
What do Australia’s top CEOs make?
According to SMH, Australia’s highest-paid CEO is Victor Herrero, the former boss of the Lovisa jewellery chain. He took home $39.6 million last year, and he’d look great drizzled in tomato sauce.
Herrero is followed by Macquarie Bank CEO Shemara Wikramanayake ($29.8 million), Greg Goodman of Goodman Group ($26.8) and BHP Group’s Mike Henry ($19.2).
Rounding out our top five degustation board is mining magnate Jakob Stausholm, who raked in $19 million as the CEO of Rio Tinto.
I’ve just digested all those numbers and for some reason my mouth is still watering.
So… table for two?
The post You’re Probably Drastically Underestimating How Much Your CEO Earns appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
