Yes, the primary argument is that without such high CEO pay, companies would perform materially worse due to the consequences of poorer CEO decision making. Yo

Yes, the primary argument is that without such high CEO pay, companies would perform materially worse due to the consequences of poorer CEO decision making. You seem to be pointing out that the gap between CEO and average employee pay is increasing, which while true, doesn't seem to address the primary argument. In fact, it may be true that, on average, employee pay will decrease by lowering CEO pay (if, in fact, it's true that overall company performance suffers as a result). It's hard to find supporting evidence for or against the primary argument because you can't split test a CEO, but there are definitely examples of almost identical businesses, where one succeeded and the other failed purely due to execution. And, one can make an argument that the difference in execution is largely due to the CEO. One such example is Blue Apron vs Hello Fresh.