Posted by Leonard Steinberg on November 24th, 2013

In a world where income inequality and fairness has become a hot topic, today we will find out if Switzerland will go ahead with one of the most radical plans to fight inequality ever: Limiting the pay of top executives to that of their lowest paid employees’ salary. YIKES: in Switzerland? The idea is to limit compensation 12:1. Currently, a lot of Swiss firms have a ratio of more than 100:1. Roche, the Swiss drug giant, reportedly paid its top executive $13.9 million in 2012, and its lowest $59,000 — a ratio of 1:236. (The average American CEO earns more than 200 times the salary of their lowest paid employee.) Today this proposal is being put to the vote. But are CEO’s the only people who are unfairly compensated?

David Roth, the leader of the youth wing of Swiss party the Social Democrats, and one of the architects of the plan, recently told Business Insider that he expected that salaries would go down, and then the money would be spent on lower paid workers and investing in the companies.  Swiss executives have warned that their companies would leave the country if the bill passed (Roth said that such an attitude was “quite arrogant”).

Bill de Blasio must be watching this closely in his pursuit of fairness: and while the moral justification of some CEO’s pay is questionable, I want to come out in defense of CEO’s when compared to other SUPER-HIGHLY-PAID individuals such as Football players, rock stars, artists, super-models, etc many of whom assume significantly lesser responsibility than CEO’s of huge corporations. Why, if Switzerland is so serious about fairness, is this fairness doctrine not being applied to EVERYONE? If you think I am exaggerating, here are some facts to ponder:

• The top 400 earned an average of over $ 200 million in 2009 and paid an average income tax rate of 19.9%, the same rate paid by a single worker who made $110,000. The top 400 earned five times that much every day.
• Super-model Gisele Bundchen made $45 million last year.
• Dr. Dre made $110 million last year….Roger Waters $88 million…..Justin Bieber $55 million…..Taylor Swift $57 million. Britney Spears is set to earn $ 310,000.00 per performance in her Vegas gig ($50 m in 2012).
• NFL star Drew Brees earned $51 million, Alex Rodriquez earned $29 million.
• Steven Spielberg earned $130 million, Oprah earned  $165 million, Jerry Bruckheimer $115 million, Tyler Perry $105 million, Simon Cowell $90 million.
• The largest 220 private US companies employ an average of 19,000 employees each. The top 50 US public corporations employ a minimum of 117,000 employees each (Walmart employs 2,2million): that’s a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of their CEO’s when compared to Britney Spears responsibilities?

In a world where fairness is a hot topic, lets put ALL the facts on the table, not just a select few to garner mass appeal. Granted, some poor-performing CEO’s are grossly overpaid and shareholders should revolt these abuses. Surely income should always be based on performance?

For anyone who believes that high earners will not leave town if their incomes are minimized and their taxes maximized, take a close look at France: a wealthy exodus is happening there right now . In fact, it has already happened in New York: I know of MANY very rich ‘New Yorkers’ who are spending at least 51% of the year out of State. Should we limit the size of lotteries too?