China Slams Its Own CEOs Over Pay
Reuters PhotographerQuartz's Adam Pasick points us to a report from the FT's Simon Rabinovitch on China condemning salaries among its top corporate execs.
The thing is, they're not even that high, at least compared with their American counterparts.
The head of China International Marine Containers, Mai Boliang, came in at No. 1 with $1.6 million in comp, despite net profits at the firm falling 47 per cent last year.
Meanwhile Jiang Jiaqing, who last year made the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China the world's most profitable financial institution, took home just $185,000.
That was still too much for the state-owned news agencies, Rabinovitch writes:
...Xinhua news agency said in an editorial: “If the top executives of state-owned companies just fatten themselves, giving themselves high salaries and rich benefits, this is a departure from the original intent of the founding of these companies.”
The People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist party, said: “High pay for high-level executives and low pay for ordinary employees is immoral.
Not all share this view: some academics argue higher pay would help stem the country's runaway corruption problems.