The problem, as always, is that there are no apparent penalties for being Worst CEO Ever, except “fewer millions of dollars”. And the screw-ups are the ones th

The problem, as always, is that there are no apparent penalties for being Worst CEO Ever, except “fewer millions of dollars”. And the screw-ups are the ones that make workers say “hell, pay me 1/100th of what you paid him and I can make bad decisions too!”. Worse, there is a scale of effect here. If you take a million dollars away from even an above-average worker, his life savings is gone and he’s screwed and in debt. If you take it away from an overpaid exec, he’s just a little pissed but he’ll be fine. Heck, the excellent PR alone should make it a good idea for companies to spread extra millions among workers, as it is unquestionably the right thing to do morally (besides: the workers probably deserve it due to inflation alone, the company will do better due to worker motivation, etc.).