Business & Finance: Killing the Goose

Is the take-home pay of company executives big enough? Last week, after a study of 41 major U.S. companies, Arch (Archibald Alexander) Pattern, 44-year-old management consultant for Manhattan's McKinsey & Co., said no.

Patton found that top management salaries between 1939 and 1950 increased less than those of any other working group. In eleven years, management salaries rose 35%, while those of foremen rose 83% and hourly and white-collar workers, 106%. The relatively small executive increases, plus heavy taxes in the high-salary brackets, cut down executives' real purchasing power 59% while hourly and white-collar workers had a rise of 3%.

Concluded Patton: "Our...

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