2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Compensation Differentials between corporate executives and workers in the United States

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20530364
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Business administration
Research Institution	Meiji Gakuin University
Principal Investigator	SASAJIMA Yoshio Meiji Gakuin University, 経済学部, 教授 (90187138)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2010
Keywords	役員報酬 / 生活賃金 / 最低賃金 / 同一価値労働同一賃金 / 公正賃金法
Research Abstract	The major factors why the corporate executive compensation in the United States is so high are as follows: the spread of stock option as compensation, malfunctioning of the compensation committee of the corporate board, problems associated with the use of market rates for the executive compensation, the behavior of the consultants for the corporate board, social and cultural value in the United States. It is difficult to reduce the executive compensation because it requires the general reduction of salary structure and the negation of the social and cultural value, and market rates do not change quickly. On the other hand, the wage level of low wage earners is almost at poverty level, which in turn led to the active living wage movement. In addition, it is very difficult to enact a law for "the equal pay for work of equal value". However, "the equal pay for work of equal value" is actually practiced in many companies.