Flying Tiger,
"Compare this with other employees. What determines our salaries? The market? No! Try history, union obstructionism and the constant threat of industrial action if we don't get our own way."
And when history is forgotten and union obstructionism is circumvented and the threat of industrial action is therefore diminished, as is happening in the airline industry in Australia, what determines our "salaries" then. Perhaps market forces will play a more prominent role?
Icarus,
"I disagree about huge CEO salaries though, especially when the company goes backwards and the CEO still makes millions"
Flying Tiger made reference to GD of Qantas. He is CEO of what recently was (and may still be - numbers pending) the most profitable airline in the world (not my words).
You are jumping at shadows - no one here has put forth an argument that CEO's deserve "huge" salaries when the company they are managing goes "backwards".
One only wonders where Ansett would now be had the board upped the compensation package for CEO and employed someone with market savvy like Jeffrey Bezos or industrial balls like Geff Immelt or Dave Cody.
Incognito
"Q is still riding the wave of Ansett's collapse...."
Perhaps they are. Maybe GD is smarter than you think.