Is the C-Suite Paid Too Much or Not Enough?

You use Doug McMillon’s success at

Walmart to argue “Why CEOs Get Paid So Much” (Review & Outlook, Nov. 17). But is he worth more than $20 million—or would that qualify as what investment giant Warren Buffett referred to in 2007 as “irrational and excessive” pay?

I spent more than 30 years in the investment-management business and can attest to the value of exceptional leadership and well-crafted incentive packages. Yet today’s average CEO-to-worker pay ratio is extreme, fueling deep-seated resentments across the political spectrum. The Institute for Policy Studies recently reported that the “Low Wage 100” S&P 500 companies had a 632-to-1 average CEO-to-worker pay ratio. The Economic Policy Institute pegs the overall average ratio at 290 to 1, up from 21 in 1965.