(Editor's note: This is a report of a Dynata survey conducted by its Senior Vice President, Global Research & Operations Steven Millman) "Rags to Riches," "Streets Paved with Gold," "Get Rich Quick," "Equal Opportunity," "Truth, Beauty and The American Way" … There have been many famous phrases attempting to sum up "What is the American Dream, exactly?"
During the onset of COVID-19, Bill had been impressed with some CEOs who cut their own salaries in order to avoid furloughing so many of their employees. However, he also noted that CEO salaries tend to be a smaller part of CEO compensation, the bonuses and stock buybacks being the larger share. Of course, to the general public, these CEO moves might have generated considerable good will toward the brands involved. For example, a Dynata survey this past summer found that 43% of Americans said they would be more loyal to a brand whose senior executives were forgoing a portion of their salary to save jobs during the pandemic.
Thinking of these various things, Bill suggested adding a question to (in Bill’s words) the brilliant ongoing survey work Steven has always done. The question was: “Please tell us how much you agree or disagree with the following statement: Large business CEOs deserve the large salaries and bonuses they receive.” Steven added this question to a recent omnibus study that fielded September 26-28 with a sample of 2,100 registered voters. The margin of error was about +/- 2.1.
Only 7.6% of Americans completely agreed with the idea that big business CEOs deserve their compensation. Women were less likely to completely agree (4.8%) than men (10.2%). Perhaps the men feel that the dream of someday making it into that charmed circle themselves is more likely than women do given the gender disparity that exists in leadership among large companies.