Right-o. So we're mostly Americans here, at least more so than we are Swiss: let me use American figures. Assume minimum wage of $7.25/hr, equivalent full-time

Right-o. So we're mostly Americans here, at least more so than we are Swiss: let me use American figures. Assume minimum wage of $7.25/hr, equivalent full-time salary of $14,500/yr. You're the CEO of a firm doing labor-intensive business, with a large number of minimum-wage employees and low-ish profit margins (they tend to go together) so that raising wages would mean swift bankruptcy. Your maximum salary is now $174,000. Which is not a bad rate of pay, but it's not a really really good rate of pay. Heck, I've made that much before (2010, when the market un-crashed and my stock options were actually worth money). You used to make more, so you own your little chalet, and you've got a nest egg of $4.5 million. You make about $175k/yr off the stock market alone. You love what you do... but do you love it more than a full-time job skiing in the Swiss Alps and living off savings?