May 9, 2014

Maximum wage legislation

In testimony before the Rhode Island state legislature, Econ4’s Doug Smith lays out the rationale for capping the maximum annual compensation a firm pays its CEO – based on what it pays its lowest-paid workers:

This dangerous rise in top-to-bottom pay ratios fuels a cancerous spread of business strategies obsessed with cost reductions and short-term financial performance. The result: outsourcing, offshoring, tax avoidance, downsizing, and the substitution of good-paying permanent jobs with temporary, precarious employment.

Read more here and here.

Read his New York Times op-ed piece on maximum wages for government officials and top-paid government contractors here.