.

“Well, here’s something to file under Not Shocking,” Juanita announced as she read aloud from the internet machine at the cash register.

CEO pay has been blasted for increasing risk to the economy, being out of proportion to ordinary wages and being unrelated to actual company performance. And, according to a new study, a high salary may actually make your company’s CEO meaner. (Hat tip to Harvard Business Review)

In the study’s white paper, “When Executives Rake in Millions: Meanness in Organizations,” professors from Harvard, Rice and the University of Utah argue that rising income inequality between executives and ordinary workers results in “power asymmetries in the workplace such that top executives come to view lower level workers as dispensable objects not worthy of human dignity.”

“You mean that they turn into robber barons?” Juanita asks with mock shock.

“I have a friend who says that Republicanism is a just a poorly disguised excuse to be greedy,” Juanita says.  “A few more ‘not worthy of human dignity’ thoughts and we’ll be back to child labor and a 7 day work week.  It’s a short jump, and they’ve done it before so they know the pathway.”

“God love ’em,” Juanita says, “because nobody else does.”