This week I read an article in the New York Times titled “How Much Is a C.E.O. Worth? America’s Confused Approach to Pay” written by Neil Irwin. This article starts by discussing some of the main reasons why paying C.E.O.’s so much money is necessary and not completely outlandish. The author uses logos to make this point, “Douglas McMillon… makes more than $19 million a year (including unvested stock grants) to run Walmart, a company with 2.2 million employees and half a trillion dollars in revenue” he then compares this with the 26 Major League Baseball players who make money a year than him, stating that the future of the U.S. economy depends more heavily on how well the C.E.O. of Walmart does his job rather than the baseball players who make more than him. The article continues to explain how the new Security and Exchange Commission (which was approved on Wednesday) will force companies to disclose the information regarding how much their C.E.O. and other top officials are paid. Thereby encouraging them to tighten the gap between these to paid officials and the regular workers. He then explains why the numbers have raised so much over the years and again adds logos like “the Economic Policy Institute notes that C.E.O. pay has risen even faster since 1979 than overall pay for the top .1 percent.” This logos was important for strengthening his argument because it came at a time when more data was needed, so that this piece was not all opinion. The article ends with a claim stating, “Even small changes to policy around executive pay won’t come easy.” This was a powerful way to conclude the article and sums up what the whole thing was about. I would suggest reading this article if you are interested to learn and stay up to date with the recent changes in policy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/06/upshot/how-much-is-a-ceo-worth-americas-confused-approach-to-pay.html?ref=economy&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1
dlp5382 says
You did a great job explaining how the author if this article used ethos and pathos. I agree that the small changes won’t come easy but it was, indeed, a powerful way to end this piece.
Brian McBride says
This article really brings out the issue among all CEOs and baseball players. The logos approach was well presented in your post. Your intermingled quotes and opinions of experts make this post well worth reading.