Completely unnecessary.

How dare you compare the Blackstone Group founder to mere mortals like Tim Cook or Lloyd Blankfein! He is a creator, not some lowly manager. Indeed, having created, he could forego managing and still make almost all of the $690 million he took home last year—and deserve each and every penny. It's important everyone understand and remember that.

Mr. Schwarzman said it’s unfair to compare his payout — mostly dividends paid on his Blackstone shares — to that of bank chiefs whose yearly pay amounts to what he brings home in just days.

“It’s not that different if you were a Steve Jobs starting his company versus a Tim Cook, who is working there,” Mr. Schwarzman, 68, said, referring to the late co-founder and current CEO of Apple Inc., respectively. “It’s because you start a company and you own stock and you’d make that whether you worked or you didn’t work.”

Indeed, had Mr. Schwarzman spent 2014 sunning on a beach rather than running the firm from its Park Avenue offices or globetrotting to meet with its investors, he would have collected all but 0.06% of last year’s take home.

Steve Schwarzman: More Steve Jobs Than Tim Cook [WSJ MoneyBeat blog]
Private Equity Payouts Leave the Rest of Wall St. in the Dust [DealBook]