The CS managers earned top wages – and drove the bank to the economic abyss. What wages are fair? The guests in the club discussed this.
Is it fair for a boss to make 256 times as much as his employees, who work at the other end of the pay scale? Or is the ratio 18:1 like at Migros? Or the ratio of 2:1, as sociology professor Ueli Mäder actually considers correct?
The opinions in the “Club round” on the subject of “Bank bonuses – how much value can work have?” are quickly clarified: “If you do something well, you should also earn well,” says Klaus W. Wellershof, former chief economist at UBS. Ueli Mäder, emeritus professor of sociology, on the other hand, believes that there is absolutely no justification for one person earning a hundred times as much as another.
The discussion could have ended with the position of headhunter Doris Aebi: “There is no fair wage,” she says. Because performance is just one of many factors. For example, who the boss considers important in his team.
“You also have to ask yourself what the high wage differences do to a company,” Ueli Mäder continues. If some work a lot and still hardly get a green branch and others skim off, then “that drives people and is completely destructive”.
The question of wages leads to an extremely lively and often polyphonic discussion – everyone is keen to comment. And when the statement of an angry CS small shareholder who is waiting in front of the Hallenstadion to be admitted to the general meeting is played, the outrage of the population also blows into the discussion round.
How can inequality be eliminated? Publicist Beat Kappeler is betting on the market: “In the construction industry, higher wages are paid than required by the state contract – because otherwise people would run away.” In a free labor market like in Switzerland, it is possible for employees to run away.
Raphael Wüthrich, spokesman for the sovereign money initiative, does not agree with this. 160,000 working poor lived in Switzerland. “And they just can’t afford to run away.”
Klaus W. Wellershof sees another solution: «Why don’t we increase income tax if we are bothered by these conditions? Then we vote on it – and the issue is closed.”