When asked about big bosses’ pay cheques, three out of four Germans asked by Stern magazine said they were far too large. Just 21 percent said that they thought high-ranking managers deserved their wage.
Fifty-eight percent said they believed legal limits should be imposed on what high ranking managers were paid. But 39 percent said they thought that was not necessary.
The statistics come after the revelation that Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn took home €20 million in 2012, news which triggered debate nationwide.
Almost half – 47 percent – of those asked by Stern agreed that managers should be paid no more than 100 times the wage of their lowest-earning employee – a suggestion put forward by Klaus Schwab, President of the World Economic Forum, at the Davos conference last week.
If this were to have applied to Winterkorn, he would have earned €2.9 million. Still, 27 percent said they felt Schwab’s guidelines to be too high.
The Local/jcw
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