Theories of desert are various. Principles of desert can be comparative or noncomparative. A comparative desert principle specifies what makes people more or less deserving relative to one another. A noncomparative desert principle associates a proper amount of recognition, remuneration, or reward with an individual's particular level of deservingness. For example, the claim that medical doctors and business executives are paid too much compared to what manual workers get is a claim of comparative desert. The assertions that no one deserves to starve and that those guilty of perpetrating torture-murder deserve the death penalty are claims of noncomparative desert. An individual is rightly regarded as deserving only on the basis of some personal characteristic such as her traits or doings (on varieties of desert principles, see Hurka 2003, and for a systematic exploration of desert, see Kagan 2012).