Hot take: Most CEOs should be paid more. Most teams should be paid less.
Pay isn't based on "how hard someone works." It's based on how easy that role is to replace.
Why Most CEOs Should Actually Be Paid More
Replaceability Matters
Minimum wage jobs get trained in an hour. Great CEOs know marketing, sales, product, recruiting, and leadership. Many have put in as many hours as the world's greatest surgeons.
Great CEOs take decades to forge. It's no wonder that a great CEO can 100x your company. While a bad one can zero it out.
The Real Gap
That gap? Hundreds of millions, if not billions. Sometimes trillions.
Meanwhile the guy complaining about CEO pay on LinkedIn? He's about to be replaced by a robot.
Simple Math
When a CEO takes a company from $100M to $1B, they created $900M in wealth.
Pay them $50M. It's a bargain.
Uncomfortable Truth
Most salaries aren't low because companies are greedy. They're low because the work isn't that hard to find someone else to do.
The bottom line? Pay reflects replaceability, not effort. Great CEOs are rare, take decades to develop, and create massive value. That's why they earn what they do.
If you want to command higher pay, focus on becoming harder to replace. Build skills that take years to master and create outsized impact.
Start thinking about what makes you irreplaceable today.