This is a topic that we have all thought about at one time or another. We all want that Raise, more money is always appreciated but more importantly, What am I worth?
Today’s economy is driven by greed. Greed is good though, it pushes innovation, it causes us to push the envelope of what can be done. Why then do we have such a dramatic problem with poverty and wealth?
looking at these ratios, we see averages in the US of Poverty driving salarys. This ratio says that the CEO is 354 times more valuable than the people doing the day to day work, or is it that the CEO’s of the world do 354 times more work. That must make your ego feel really good if you are the CEO but if you are a CEO, how do you believe this makes the ego of your workers feel. I will say this, although I do not know all the answers I will say that there is some simple ignorance involved here.
A personal experience may open this a little. At one time I worked in a company were, I spent much time with people working at all levels of the company. At one time, we were visiting an executive of this this company at his home. As the evening progressed, one of them said, “You guys should move into our neighborhood”. Knowing this area was well out of our financial reach, we simply expressed that it was out of our budget. This, is where things get a bit frustrating. Their response was ” it is not that much, Mortgages in the area are only $####,##” so casually, implying that it was not that much. Considering they knew the position I held at the company and the approximate wage I was receiving. This had to be shear ignorance because, the cost of a mortgage payment they mentioned was over 2/3 my monthly gross income. That combined with utilities for the house would have well exceeded any income I was receiving at the time.
It is my belief that when these executives set salaries for their employees, they are looking at what is the standard or what is the least we can pay and still keep the position functioning. They are not asking “What is this person or what they are doing really worth to the company by comparison to what everyone else is making”
Does any of this really answer any of the above mentioned questions? NO, the only thing I can really answer is you are likely worth far more than you are making.
