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You might be surprised. I suspect people will be quick to identify the problem with CEO pay but not use the same logic to identify the problem with SWE pay.

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SWE pay might be high, but in the same market it is 4 to 10x median earnings compared with 200 to 600x for a CEO. Even the gap between a CEO and a SWE is 6 times bigger than the gap between a SWE and a factory worker.

Comparing between labor markets is not needed when there is a clear and present problem in a single market. Fixing a local problem should be more tractable than addressing global inequality.

It depends on what the goal of the exercise is.

There are substantially fewer CEOs relative to SWEs. If your goal is to help the most impoverished, you are better off reallocating salary from SWEs than CEOs.

Global inequality doesn't invalidate a rich nation's inequality. Both issues can exist and be addressed.

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