Review: Are Chief Executives Overpaid by Deborah Hargreaves

A challenge to CEO's everywhere and their hefty pay checks.

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@shereadsbooks.sometimes

Dates read: 19/01/25 to 09/02/25

Word to describe: Blood-boiling

Star rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐

Genre: Non Fiction, Economic Information, Social Commentary.

Are Chief Executives Overpaid? is the question given to readers by author Deborah Hargreaves who, with the use of compelling statistics and commentary behind the current yearly salary reasons with readers to 1. why the salary has vastly increased in the past 50 years and 2. the complete breakdown of the ways businesses use shares and pay that is not in cash but can be transferred for cash to avoid admitting the true value of their CEO, I can confidently answer with FUCK YES.

Hargreaves explains the astronomical rise in CEO pay checks in the past fifty years from reasonable middle to upper class earner wages of us to 100k a year to over 200 times the national living wage (in the UK). Whilst the average UK earner is surviving on approximately £710 a week (last reported in 2024), CEO's as of 2015 are currently earning several million a year overseeing work that is ultimately achieved by those who are pillars below them in the working hierarchy. They can then sit back and enjoy the limited labour they have to perform and then receive not only an excessive yearly salary but also a infuriatingly large amount in business shares to escape getting taxed for their great contribution to business.

This short and ultimately educational book highlighted the absolute disparity between the excessive consumption of those earning the top pay checks in the 1% of the popularity teamed with the shocking realisation that the majority of their employees are living month to month barely being able to afford basic necessities. So when the CEO gets his/her yearly bonus in company shares, lavish meals, hotel trips, business meetings that take them across the globe to sit in a room for one hour and then get given a company credit card, I have my own question. When will society learn that the 1% are never going to share their wealth and will happily exploit people living with minimum wages because it ensures that they can't afford to find better work and will continue working for a scrap of the financial wealth distribution.

To say that this book was outstandingly frustrating to read would be a minimal statement. Other than sheer detest towards the Richie Riches of today's society this book gave me a headache worth of information and a dichotomy of reactions from burn the rich to work harder I might be just like them. I hate this book with such a passion for brewing such negative emotions within me. Please read it.