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For a sense of scale; a somewhat representative figure for a lifetime median income of a worker in the US is ~2.5m [1][2] this guy is earning ~50 times that in

For a sense of scale; a somewhat representative figure for a lifetime median income of a worker in the US is ~2.5m [1][2] this guy is earning ~50 times that in a couple of years. To give these figures a bit of shape. This is like getting a smarties cake[3] and giving Surojit Chatterjee pretty much the entire cake for just a couple years work. Whereas the median worker gets, for working a lifetime of effort (~45 years) about a quarter of a single smartie. I'm not saying that everyone should earn the same but rather I would question this gap which continues to grow. This sort of payout is not aspirational IMHO but rather a symbol of a deeply dysfunctional society. [1] https://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/research-summary/lifetime-earnings-in-the-united-states-over-six-decades/ https://bfi.uchicago.edu/insight/research-summary/lifetime-e... [2] I made some crass assumptions on top of these figures to make it easier for me to calculate, but its representative. [3] https://i.pinimg.com/originals/72/e8/fb/72e8fbf7cf48f45db6d8f518121d7c80.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/72/e8/fb/72e8fbf7cf48f45db6d8...

zeroonetwothree 4y ago
It’s a fallacy that there is a fixed amount of money to go around. Less money for this Coinbase guy doesn’t mean more money for the median worker. If anything, probably the opposite.
Cerium 4y ago
We need maximum wage laws. Such a law might look like this: The maximum total compensation (Salary + estimated stock grant value) must be less than some multiple of the lowest prorated total compensation of any regularly scheduled employee or contractor operating within nominal geographic limits. Goal: Stop overpaying top staff or increase the pay of your lowest workers, including commonly outsourced positions such as janitorial staff.
- anonymouskimmer 4y ago
  The big issue is stock. It's also one that would be really, really hard to fix because of entrenched interests and wish fulfillment. To fix it you'd have to do something like break it up into component parts: 1) Voting rights 2) Capital ownership (liquidation rights) 3) Dividend rights (aka profit sharing, pensions plans, and the like) As well as expand the use of bonds for fundraising (including at the startup funding steps). It will never happen due to entrenched interests (one of which is very importantly the right of legislators to own shares in companies). I don't know. It could happen in privately owned corporations, employee owned corporations, or if shareholders of a particular company get mad about the huge payouts to fly-by-night executives. But it's unlikely.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- RestlessMind 4y ago
  > We need maximum wage laws. Coinbase' last private round valuation was ~8B[1]. On its DPO day, the stock closed at ~340, giving it a valuation of ~80B, or a 10x increase in ~18 months. Options literally skyrocketed and given the time value of options, they would have been worth far more if traded directly vs a simple exercise and sell. How will you design maximum wage laws in a case where something is shooting up 10-15x in value? Rather, what we have today (progressive taxation) seems to be a right setup with some tuning needed to balance the treatment of capital gains vs wages. [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/coinbase-series-f--37e7366b https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/coinbase-series-f--...
- jahewson 4y ago
  Pre-IPO, so surely it was options and not a stock grant? Very different risk/reward profile.
- Quarrelsome 4y ago
  perhaps make max executive pay+benefits proportional to the lowest full-time salary+benefits with a maximum ratio? The spirit of such legislation would be that executives should then seek to increase salaries of their workers in order to then increase their own.
  - nradov 4y ago
    Executives would just contract out low-value tasks instead of hiring low-wage employees to perform them.
    - Quarrelsome 4y ago
      Sure, but when you outsource, you lose efficiency to an extent. Corporations are large because of advantages they get from centralisation resulting in administrative efficiencies and this would be forcing them to undo some of those advantages.
      - anonymouskimmer 4y ago
        Even worse executives would ex-insource. There are plenty of permatemp agencies that can take employees off of your payroll, while keeping them still working inside your centralized structure. And there are plenty of corporations who have historically given slightly higher level employees a pink slip simultaneous with an on-site consultant contract.
        Quarrelsome 4y ago
        then it anchor it partially to the national median while providing an offset depending how well paid the rest of your staff is.

zeroonetwothree 4y ago

It’s a fallacy that there is a fixed amount of money to go around. Less money for this Coinbase guy doesn’t mean more money for the median worker. If anything, probably the opposite.

Cerium 4y ago

We need maximum wage laws. Such a law might look like this: The maximum total compensation (Salary + estimated stock grant value) must be less than some multiple of the lowest prorated total compensation of any regularly scheduled employee or contractor operating within nominal geographic limits. Goal: Stop overpaying top staff or increase the pay of your lowest workers, including commonly outsourced positions such as janitorial staff.

anonymouskimmer 4y ago
The big issue is stock. It's also one that would be really, really hard to fix because of entrenched interests and wish fulfillment. To fix it you'd have to do something like break it up into component parts: 1) Voting rights 2) Capital ownership (liquidation rights) 3) Dividend rights (aka profit sharing, pensions plans, and the like) As well as expand the use of bonds for fundraising (including at the startup funding steps). It will never happen due to entrenched interests (one of which is very importantly the right of legislators to own shares in companies). I don't know. It could happen in privately owned corporations, employee owned corporations, or if shareholders of a particular company get mad about the huge payouts to fly-by-night executives. But it's unlikely.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
RestlessMind 4y ago
> We need maximum wage laws. Coinbase' last private round valuation was ~8B[1]. On its DPO day, the stock closed at ~340, giving it a valuation of ~80B, or a 10x increase in ~18 months. Options literally skyrocketed and given the time value of options, they would have been worth far more if traded directly vs a simple exercise and sell. How will you design maximum wage laws in a case where something is shooting up 10-15x in value? Rather, what we have today (progressive taxation) seems to be a right setup with some tuning needed to balance the treatment of capital gains vs wages. [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/coinbase-series-f--37e7366b https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/coinbase-series-f--...
jahewson 4y ago
Pre-IPO, so surely it was options and not a stock grant? Very different risk/reward profile.
Quarrelsome 4y ago
perhaps make max executive pay+benefits proportional to the lowest full-time salary+benefits with a maximum ratio? The spirit of such legislation would be that executives should then seek to increase salaries of their workers in order to then increase their own.
- nradov 4y ago
  Executives would just contract out low-value tasks instead of hiring low-wage employees to perform them.
  - Quarrelsome 4y ago
    Sure, but when you outsource, you lose efficiency to an extent. Corporations are large because of advantages they get from centralisation resulting in administrative efficiencies and this would be forcing them to undo some of those advantages.
    - anonymouskimmer 4y ago
      Even worse executives would ex-insource. There are plenty of permatemp agencies that can take employees off of your payroll, while keeping them still working inside your centralized structure. And there are plenty of corporations who have historically given slightly higher level employees a pink slip simultaneous with an on-site consultant contract.
      - Quarrelsome 4y ago
        then it anchor it partially to the national median while providing an offset depending how well paid the rest of your staff is.