<i>The same could be said for any other employees. Programmers, warehouse workers or whatever. Maybe they could be paid for the difference they make too. Yet this doesn&#x27;t happen, because the supply side is important as well, as well as the lack of power these people have.</i><p>No, this can&#x27;t be said for every other employee. The best warehouse worker is not adding $1B or anything close to it to the bottom line.<p>It can be said for some programmers and these programmers do tend to make lots of money. (Though in many cases they are given titles other than &quot;programmer&quot;, e.g. &quot;managing director&quot; of a team of 0.) See also top traders - at many firms they can make more than the CEO.<p>The fact that not all CEOs are perfect doesn&#x27;t contradict this claim. In fact, if you are attributing JC Penny&#x27;s 32% loss to the CEO you are supporting the claim of gizi.