Document Type
Conference Paper
Publication Date
9-2-2026
Abstract
In the modern economy of America, there is a massive pay gap between the executives and employees of large publicly traded for-profit corporations. Previous research has looked into the ethics that dictate CEOs’ actions, but few tackle the connection between ethics and compensation. CEOs sometimes make nine figures as a yearly salary, but what are some ethical takes on that salary? This project combines three ethics theories - Aristotle’s Virtue Theory, Kant’s Deontology, and Mill’s Utilitarianism - to create the framework for a theory that will be able to more ethically direct the executives through their compensation by providing inquiry into the character of the actor, the actor’s motives, and the action itself. Using Steven Clifford’s The CEO Pay Machine as a foundation, this project connects details from the process of creating a compensation package to the ethical philosophy that is discussed. In this project, I will provide an ethical framework of executive compensation with connections to the more intricate process, as well as connect the theories of the mentioned philosophers with the workings of modern corporations, all to aim towards a more fair, ethical, and successful corporate workplace.
Keywords
Virtue Theory, Deontology, Utilitarianism, Ethics, Executive Compensation, Business Ethics, Applied Ethics, CEO Compensation
Disciplines
Applied Ethics
Sponsoring Agency
Berry Family Foundation
eCommons Citation
McGinn, Luke, "The Broken Machine: An Ethical Analysis of Executive Compensation" (2026). Research from the Berry Summer Thesis Institute, 2026. 9.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/uhp_bsti_2026/9
Comments
I would like to extend my gratitude to the Berry Family Foundation for funding this program, the University Honors Department, especially the directors of the Berry Summer Thesis Institute, for selecting me for the program, which allowed me to spend the summer doing this fascinating research. I would also like to thank the rest of my cohort for going on this journey with me as we all shared our struggles and triumphs through the summer. Finally, I would like to extend immense gratitude to my mentor, Megan Edmonds, who spent a lot of her time this summer checking my work, making sure I got the correct understanding from primary source philosophical texts, and helped me polish this paper into the final version before you. Without all of these people, I would not have been able to produce anything near as extensive as this project is now.