Let's stop obsessing over CEO pay.

FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES critics have tried to control large public company CEO pay through regulation, legislation and direct pressure. Nothing seems to have worked. Now that a new Democrat-controlled Congress is feeling it must flex its muscles in all sectors of the economy, we can expect to see more handwringing over pay differentials between the boss and average employees. As it turns out, calls for increased transparency and disclosure have actually contributed to pushing pay scales higher as CEOs now see what their peers are really making. And limiting one type of compensation usually leads to increases in more obscure forms of remuneration. All of this begs the question as to whether more "reform" is worth the effort. Some friendly advice to the incoming senators and congressmen: Large public company executive compensation is not the biggest problem facing our economy. Let boards and investors, including activists, do their job. With CEO average tenure falling to seven years from 10 years less than a decade ago, the cure for nonperformance is the pink slip--which boards seem to have little inhibition in handing out these days.