Bruce, what magical fairy tale land do you live in? Once you get past the "feel good" story so the press has something to talk about, your left with exactly what Ernie suggested. I'd be awfully pissed if I worked for a company for many years and slowly worked my way up and all of a sudden the new guy is making the same as me. I would not care what the boss was making, that's on him. I would only look at my hard work and sacrifices and compare to the guy who started there last Monday with zero experience.

My fiancee has her administration degree and used to say how all the teachers and staff will love her when she becomes an administrator because she will treat them all fairly. As I've been running the business, she has slowly seen that will never be the case. You simply cannot please 100% of the people 100% of the time. If this guy wanted to avoid ill feelings, his best best would have been to give an across the board percentage raise to everyone. That way new people would feel like they walked into a GREAT company while the long timers would feel like they made the right choice by staying at this GREAT company. Can't be pissed if everyone gets the same percentage increase. Of course some would still be pissed (that 100% thing)