Writing Task 2, Essay No. 4 (Topic: Employment)

Some people think that it is a good thing for senior management positions to have very high salaries compared to other workers of the same company or organization. To what extend do you agree?

It is common knowledge that most companies offer their management employees with higher remuneration than that of rank and file employees. A number of individuals see this set up as appropriate. On the other hand, I feel ambivalent with this arrangement.

First and foremost, upper managers do contribute a lot to the company to merit higher wages. They bring years of experience and decision making skills that entry level employees are less likely capable. Most managers are promoted on the basis of their tenure, so, they are well capable to carry out tasks of their subordinates in cases of understaffing. Aside from that, senior managers are quintessential of decision-making. They assess the company status and plan for action. Since they give out the instruction, it is also them who face the results or repercussions. In addition, most higher ranking employees are on call day and night that they lose hours of sleep and family time. Therefore, being in a higher position does increase the level of stress felt by that individual which some managers even claim that that salary they earn do not reciprocate the stress they receive.

On the contrary, senior managers are not often bombarded with hard labor jobs as these part of the process are assigned to the low-ranking workers of the organisation. They are the ones who become physically worked-out and at the same time mentally drained. Such as in the case if nurses as front-liners in the healthcare system. Some would even acquire nosocomial infections as a result of their exposure to contagious patients. With this in mind, such workers should deserve a higher compensation because of the hard labor and risks they take. Likewise, the operations team make the company's products and in turn their profit, whereas the managers only oversee that profit is made. Hence, rank and file employees also deserve to be highly compensated because of the contributions they take part of. 

By and large, the income of the managers and the rest of the employees should be based on the level of labor they do for the company. Senior managers do bring wisdom to the table, however, it is the low-ranking employees that draw income to the company.