Arguably related to the SEC’s recently proposed CEO pay ratio
rules, Alberto Salazar and John Raggiunti have posted “Why Does Executive Greed
Prevail in the United States and Canada but Not in Japan? The Pattern of Low
CEO Pay and High Worker Welfare in Japanese Corporations” on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

According to a list of the 200 most highly-paid chief
executives at the largest U.S. public companies in 2013, Oracle’s Lawrence J.
Ellison remained the best paid CEO and earned $96.2 million as total annual
compensation last year. He has received $1.8 billion over the past 20 years.
The lowest paid on the same list is General Motors’ D. F. Akerson who earned
$11.1 million. The average national pay for a non-supervisory US worker was
$51,200 last year and a CEO made 354 times more than an average worker in 2012.
Hunter Harrison, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., was the best paid CEO in Canada
for 2012 and received $49.2-million as total annual compensation, significantly
higher than the 2011 best paid CEO, Magna’s F. Stronach who received $40.9
million. In 2011, the average annual salary was $45,488 and Canada’s top 50
CEOs earned 235 times

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