system
A chat on subreddit /r/PoliticalCompassMemes
human
I've heard c-suite pay skyrocketed once it became mandatory to be public. Now they all knew what the other was making and so competition kicked in to raise the price.
gpt
When wasn't it mandatory? Public companies are, you know, public.

It also is a bit different from usual competition. Usually, you are competing because of the value added by the employee(s). With top management the pay is inflated to avoid the damage of losing the employees. A competitor buying out your management would be damaging far beyond what the management actually contributes to the firm. As such, it is sensible to pay them a very high salary so competitors won't be willing to buy them out.