People who've known me a while know this story. I think it's on point regarding executive pay capping, at least as I'm thinking about it now. We'll see if it hangs that way when I finish writing it.
I used to work for a small mom and pop law firm specializing in personal injury. It's where I learned the craft of litigation secretaryism. In personal injury, most of the work is done on a contingency basis, i.e. the firm will front the costs of the suit until either a settlement or a verdict is reached. If there is a settlement or the case is won, the firm recoups the costs and attorney fees at a fairly hefty percentage, as much as 45%. There are all sorts of caveats but that's the basic structure.
So, in pursuing a case, it is in a PI firm's best interest to keep costs low, since they're fronting the money. Consequently, small PI firms use paralegals like associates and secretaries like paralegals and secretaries, of course. Also, the volume of cases is larger than non-PI because of that contingency issue; the more cases you are handling, the more possibility for pay day. And still also, even small cases have their value, particularly if some poor schlub has an opposing party dead to rights in neglect. That's why grocery stores are manic about wiping up spills and marking unsafe areas...as they should be.
Anyway, because of the volume, anyone working in PI will see and more importantly, learn on a pretty rapid basis, how a case runs. At smaller firms like the one where I worked (3-5 attorneys, 1 paralegal, 3 secretaries), it's a group effort for success.
The firm where I worked was fairly successful. They had been in business for over 15 years. The two partners and their wives lived a well-to-do life. They drove Porsches, lived in the hills, sent a bunch of children to good private schools and universities, ate out frequently, vacationed marvelously and dressed well.
They paid every two weeks, which if you're a wage slave like me you know it cuts your monthly salary in 10 out of 12 months to, in my case, $400 less monthly even though I was making annually about the same as my former job. Also, this firm paid with a hard check. No automatic deposit there. But again, it was a mom and pop shop, so I'm sure there was a reason for it, mostly that Mom was the bookkeeper for the firm and she had costs of doing business to pay on the professional side and two little angels to keep in private school, Porsche payments to make, vacations to take, etc., so cutting costs was not only in the firm's interest, but in her personal interest as well.
I don't say this with any bitterness. The firm had undertaken responsibilities as a business that I did not have as an employee. Just like in PI, they took the risks of business ownership, so it is more than fair that they reap the reward. I'm not unreasonable.
Here's where I was bitter. There was no set time that they handed out your paycheck. It was nearly always after 2:00 p.m. and often as late as just before you walked out the door. Every other Friday, I was mad. After 2:00 p.m., any money deposited to the bank is not posted until Monday. And to have the Mom of mom and pop drive her Porsche up at 4:30 p.m., sweep into the office after a day of shopping with Fred Segal bags in her hands to give me my paycheck that I could not take advantage of would make my blood absolutely boil. I didn't begrudge her shopping at Fred Segal, but I did begrudge her keeping my money, money that I earned by doing my best job possible, in her hands and in those Fred Segal bags, where I could not use it.
When the public sees the fruits of their efforts (a few ducats of that bailout money was contributed by me) given to companies that have CEOs paying more than our yearly salary for a rug, it makes us resentful.
It shouldn't have to be legislated what CEOs can make, any more than I should have to complain relentlessly about getting my pay on pay day. It is something that given the situation and dictated by moral conscience, should have automatically been done. However, well-to-do people often have absolutely no shame, so legislation and whining incessantly are necessary.
Hmmm. This kind of hangs together, though the equivalency is a bit off. Though... My blood boils about these bailout CEOs in exactly the same way it did every other Friday at the mom and pop legal shoppe.
