What can a person do that is worth a third of a billion dollars? A retirement announcement from Kenneth Chenault, chief executive of American Express, prompts the question. This month he said he would leave the company next year, after 17 years as chief. His compensation as CEO to date runs to $370m in shares and cash, an average of $22m a year.
The sum is all the more stunning in that it is not unusual for someone running a big company (American Express’s market capitalisation is over $80bn). The average S&P 500 CEO earned more than $10m in 2016. These vast sums raise questions of fairness. Is it possible that one person in a very large organisation can generate that much value? Can we tell if they do?
American Express is a private company. What it pays its employees is for its board to decide and its shareholders to approve. Regulating upper limits on pay is a poor fit with a liberal society. But as with any price, it is worth asking whether companies, and the wider society, are getting value.