Let's look at the Green New Deal being presented in Congress

Hammster

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You seem to be conveniently defining overpaying as whatever you need it to be to suit your current post. First it's "the point at which no benefit is obtained," then it's "more than the minimum value they can get away with," and now we're back to the first one.
Then maybe we are getting somewhere. At 50,000, the company is now paying them as little as possible.
 
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GlabrousDory4

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So what’s the benefit to overpaying them?

CEO compensation is set by compensation committees. Other CEO's of other companies are usually on these (part of the Board of a corporation). The idea is that they must attract the best and brightest but clearly there is a built-in incentive to inflate salaries because of the cross-pollination between boards. If CEO of Company X can get the CEO of company Y a hefty salary CEO of COmpany Y may also be on the board of Company X and help get the CEO of company X a hefty salary.

Here's a better description of the details (it is not as oversimplified as I laid out here):

How Companies Actually Decide What to Pay CEOs - The Atlantic
 
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Speedwell

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PAY BENCHMARKING.

A lot of major corporations do this. They set the pay for given positions by comparing to competitors and how they pay their employees for similar jobs.

It is also a uniquely American thing to keep people from talking about their salary with each other. Most of the time it's something we're raised not to do, but sometimes it's actually against company policy. Keep people ignorant of the pay of their peers within the company and there is less possibility to know if one is being underpaid.
One of the conditions of a free market is free circulation of information about prices. In this case, wages.
 
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RocksInMyHead

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Then maybe we are getting somewhere. At 50,000, the company is now paying them as little as possible.
No, $40,000 is as little as possible. Both candidates can do the job.

A person may be willing to work for less, but could be a better employee if paid more. The two points are not identical.
 
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GlabrousDory4

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One of the conditions of a free market is free circulation of information about prices. In this case, wages.

Yup and that isn't how America is structured. In publicly traded companies obviously we can all see the pay/compensation for senior C-suite folks. But that's about it.

It's also a pretty easy way to see that executives in the US are often grossly overpaid.

Recently the same management who helped drive Sears into the ground asked for a ton of money to pay themselves a bonus after they started massive layoffs.

But I guess this is "fair".
 
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GlabrousDory4

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No, $40,000 is as little as possible. Both candidates can do the job.

H. is making use of information that is not actually available. When one pays the extra $10,000 it is a gamble that it will pay off in longer retention of the employee. But that is not guaranteed. So H. is incorrect in assuming that the $50K salary is the lowest salary considering that it is unlikely he has taken into account the NPV analysis or the time-value of the extra $10K. It might be more valuable to the company to put that extra $10K in an investment and if it outperforms the differential in the retention it would mean paying $50K was actually the higher cost to pay.

I would think he would present that data considering the usual thoroughness of his analyses.
 
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GlabrousDory4

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I'd pay them wages that at least allowed them to keep food on their tables.
Ringo

I believe the proper Conservative approach is to pay them as little as humanly possible and let the rest of the state's tax payers pick up the cost in welfare benefits for them (like some big corporations currently do). And then, as a good business owner, fight to get legislation that guts those welfare benefits to ensure that the people don't get any more food or healthcare than they can afford from their minimum wage job.

If people are willing to work for starvation wages then they are suckers and have lost the game. They deserve to suffer in penury.

If they were better people they would be richer. QED
 
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Hammster

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CEO compensation is set by compensation committees. Other CEO's of other companies are usually on these (part of the Board of a corporation). The idea is that they must attract the best and brightest but clearly there is a built-in incentive to inflate salaries because of the cross-pollination between boards. If CEO of Company X can get the CEO of company Y a hefty salary CEO of COmpany Y may also be on the board of Company X and help get the CEO of company X a hefty salary.

Here's a better description of the details (it is not as oversimplified as I laid out here):

How Companies Actually Decide What to Pay CEOs - The Atlantic
Is there anything in that article about the benefits of overpaying them? If not, then it doesn’t address my question.
 
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Hammster

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No, $40,000 is as little as possible. Both candidates can do the job.

A person may be willing to work for less, but could be a better employee if paid more. The two points are not identical.
It’s not as little as possible for them to get the desired result. 50,000 gets turn that result.
 
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Hammster

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H. is making use of information that is not actually available. When one pays the extra $10,000 it is a gamble that it will pay off in longer retention of the employee. But that is not guaranteed. So H. is incorrect in assuming that the $50K salary is the lowest salary considering that it is unlikely he has taken into account the NPV analysis or the time-value of the extra $10K. It might be more valuable to the company to put that extra $10K in an investment and if it outperforms the differential in the retention it would mean paying $50K was actually the higher cost to pay.

I would think he would present that data considering the usual thoroughness of his analyses.
I didn’t come up with the idea that 50,000 would keep them there. I only agreed with Rocks.
 
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Ringo84

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How much is that? Give me a good number.

Why...so you can poo-poo that as "too expensive" or whatever else? It would depend on the cost of living. The point is that I don't think that my precious profit is more important than the labor I use to obtain that profit. Do you disagree?
Ringo
 
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Hammster

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Why...so you can poo-poo that as "too expensive" or whatever else? It would depend on the cost of living. The point is that I don't think that my precious profit is more important than the labor I use to obtain that profit. Do you disagree?
Ringo
I guess that depends. Let’s take a Missouri. The median income is $67,000.

Would you pay all of your employees at least that?
 
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Ringo84

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I guess that depends. Let’s take a Missouri. The median income is $67,000.

Would you pay all of your employees at least that?

I'm not talking about median income, but the cost of living in my state. Why should my employees starve because I'm a skinflint?
Ringo
 
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Hammster

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I'm not talking about median income, but the cost of living in my state. Why should my employees starve because I'm a skinflint?
Ringo
I doubt you’d get too many employees to work for you if by doing so they would starve.
 
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Ringo84

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I doubt you’d get too many employees to work for you if by doing so they would starve.

I wouldn't want them to starve, which is why I'd pay them at least enough to be able to put food on their tables. That's my point: there are plenty of other people who work terrible jobs that enable them to barely keep their heads above water, because big corporations especially think that the pursuit of profit is more important than their employees.

The fact is that labor has a lot more power than is often realized. Someone has to flip the burgers, stock the shelves, man the cash registers, clean the bathrooms, etc. If nobody's there to do that, then the profits don't come in. Capital needs the "little people" to do the work it either can't do or refuses to do.
Ringo
 
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GlabrousDory4

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Is there anything in that article about the benefits of overpaying them? If not, then it doesn’t address my question.

Of course I gave you a benefit to overpaying them!!! It's called GREED.

Sheesh!

THINK! (Or do you honestly believe there are no people who will enrich themselves at the expense of others if given a chance?)
 
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GlabrousDory4

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I didn’t come up with the idea that 50,000 would keep them there. I only agreed with Rocks.

And, of course, Rocks explained that it was the idea of retention which you apparently took to be a guarantee of retention. No one (except a fool or a toddler) would assume that giving an employee $10K would "guarantee" a given retention term under the circumstances Rocks explained. That's just basic grown-up real world stuff!

So, indeed, you are still in the wrong unless you can show using an NPV analysis that the $10K wouldn't have more value given a certain span of retention.
 
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