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I think you're mixing up "ethical" and "legal" responsibilities Putting humanity first over shareholders is not an "ethical" problem

• sokoloff 8y ago
  He doesn’t even have the claimed legal responsibility to do so either.
• rgbrenner 8y ago
  He doesn't have a legal responsibility either. This is a myth. CEOs have broad discretion to act in ways that are beneficial to a company. Costco is not acting illegally, or even against their own interests, by paying workers higher wages. They can make the very true argument that paying higher wages results in happier employees that reduces turnover (and therefore training costs), increases sales (since employees are more knowledgeable about products), and results in happier customers that increases repeat visits/member retention. If the shareholders disagree with the way that the CEO is maximizing company value, then the correct response is to replace the board through a vote, who will replace the CEO. There's no legal or ethical argument here. Costco doesn't exist in a hypothetical world where everything stays the same, but wages get reduced to minimum wage. Taking that action has costs for Costco, and the end result may or may not result in an increase or decrease of company value. Hypotheticals aren't valid legal cases.