If You're So Ethical, Why Are You So Highly Paid?: Ethics, Inequality and Executive Pay

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Alexander Pepper

If You're So Ethical, Why Are You So Highly Paid?

Ethics, Inequality and Executive Pay

Alexander Pepper

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English

LSE Press
03 November 2022

Ethics & moral philosophy; Labour economics; Business ethics

In the past 30 years, senior executive pay has increased dramatically in the UK, US and other developed countries, causing much debate and, at times, public outrage. In this book, Alexander ('Sandy') Pepper argues that this soaring inflation in high pay is the result of a market failure, leading to inefficient pay practices that are replicated across industries. Individual company's renumeration committees face a prisoner's dilemma, and so recommend over-the-odds payments in the vain hope of obtaining superior talent. For institutional investors, these developments have created a collective action problem, with many historically unwilling or unable to intervene to curtail excessive corporate pay.

But are executives themselves really the greedy, self-interested, fat cats of popular culture? Based on a thought experiment and survey of beliefs of over a thousand senior executives from around the world, Pepper and his colleagues found that business executives in fact tend not to justify their pay levels as if they were ethical egoists entitled to act entirely in their own self-interest. Instead, they expressed support for a range of ethical beliefs on inequality and distributive justice. They can be categorised as either welfare liberals, relational egalitarians, meritocrats or free marketeers. Many believe that in a civilised society everyone has the right to an income that is sufficient for a dignified life, and that companies, not just governments, have responsibilities in this respect. So, Pepper argues, it is the market failure in executive pay that has created such wage inflation at the top, and this ultimately requires an ethical response from investors, companies and executives.

This is a book for anyone who wishes to understand and tackle business's role in the growing social inequality of advanced economies in an informed, fair and feasible way.

By: Alexander Pepper
Imprint: LSE Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781909890947
ISBN 10: 1909890944
Pages: 198
Publication Date: 03 November 2022
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Adult education , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Alexander ('Sandy') Pepper is Emeritus Professor of Management Practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he has been teaching and researching since 2008. Prior to this he had a long career at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he held various senior management positions, including as global leader of PwC's Human Resource Services consulting practice from 2002 to 2006. His research and teaching interests include organisations and management theory, with a particular focus on the theory of the firm, corporate governance, and business ethics. Sandy is one of the UK's recognised experts on executive pay. He is the author of several academic articles and books on the subject, including Agency Theory and Executive Pay (2019), The Economic Psychology of Incentives (2015) and Senior Executive Reward - Key Models and Practices (2006), as well as numerous blogposts and newspaper articles.