Worth their weight in gold?

Quick: which would you rather have: the salary of your average Fortune 500 CEO or the weight of that same CEO in gold?

Well, let's do the math -- the spot price of gold is approximately $350/oz. If you figure that the average CEO weighs 175 lbs., then the average CEO is worth approximately $980,000 in gold ($350/oz. x 16 oz./lb. x 175 lbs/CEO). So if you chose the CEO, you would have give-or-take a million dollars.

But if you did that, you'd still come up way short of the CEOs in two surveys this year, one by Fortune and the other by Business Week. Fortune surveyed 100 CEOs and found that the median pay was $13.2 million; Business Week surveyed 365 large companies and found that the median pay was $3.7 million (the average was $7.4 million). [link]

The lesson here? Next time you say that someone is worth his (or her) weight in gold, be sure to do the math, first. Turns out you could be selling that person short...