Many people have complained about the large salaries paid to top executives of major companies. Why do you think top executives are so well paid? Do you think their large salaries are justified?
Sample Response
When a company recruits a top-level executiveWhen it is about the recruitment of any top-level executive at a company, that executive's salary is usually above averagetheir salaries become higher than the average. Besides, a company usually pay a large percentage of their salary only to a handful of top level employees. It happens as individuals holding those posts have to shoulder significant responsibilitiestake great responsibilities, make big decisions, use their expertise to generate substantial profitspossess their unique ways to generate incredible profit for the company they are working for and so on. I think that they deserve high salariesa high payment for their unparalleled contributions to the company. It may sound weird that a top official should get a larger salary thana large payment than the ordinary employees but the issue is complexthe answer is critical. Generally, the ordinary employees work hard for hours and contributeinvest their manual labour to increase the production level. Certainly, their labour counts for the company's growth but at the end of the day, the decisions made by senior executives determinethe decision made by the higher executives determines the fate of the company. On the other handside, the job of a top official is mostly invisible to the ordinary workers. The job responsibilities of a top executive may range from controlling the quality of production to dealing with the prestigious clients, setting up the marketing strategy for survival in competition, planning for future product development, analysing the consumers’ needs, inventing newer products, making future plans, hiring and firing employees, tackling the market inflation and more. Actually, bearing such responsibilities is no easy tasknot an easy task indeed. When an ordinary employee's responsibility ends when the clock ticks to 5, there is no schedule for a top level employee. Moreover, if any of these steps results in failureif any of the steps turn into a failure, the top executive is liableis to be liable, and so, he has to devise alternative strategiesset some other strategies to overcome such unwanted situations. But expecting such fine-tuned results from the ordinary employees is impossible. They are only trained to complete the production in time. If they are assigned strategic rolesassigned with strategic roles, the entire company will collapse within a short span of time. They lack the experience, skills and foresightforeseeing capacities like the top executives. All things considered, I think hiring top executives with a larger salary is truly justified. They invest their labour, time and skills to improve the company's condition and work behind the scenesremain behind the screen. In fact, without top level employee's strategy or effective planning, it is not possible for any company to remain competitive in the marketsustain in the competitive market.
Why this response received Band 6.5
The essay gives a clear affirmative answer and develops a substantial explanation based on executive responsibility, decision-making, expertise, accountability, and working hours. Its main weakness is that the justification relies on sweeping claims about ordinary employees and repeats similar points, while awkward collocations and grammar reduce precision. Prioritise a more balanced comparison tied to measurable responsibility and performance, then divide the argument into focused paragraphs and edit agreement and comparative forms.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Both questions are directly answered with a consistent position and several relevant reasons, though the case is repetitive and some claims about ordinary workers are overgeneralised.
Explain salary justification through accountability, scarce expertise, and measurable company performance rather than assuming ordinary employees lack strategic ability.
Coherence and Cohesion
The argument has a recognisable progression from reasons to justification and conclusion, but the long unbroken body and repeated comparisons weaken organisation.
Create separate paragraphs for why executives command high pay and whether that pay is justified, each with one clearly developed main idea.
Lexical Resource
The response has adequate range for corporate roles and responsibility, but frequent awkward combinations such as "take great responsibilities," "large payment," and "foreseeing capacities" reduce accuracy.
Use precise phrases such as "bear major responsibility," "higher salary," "strategic foresight," and "remain competitive."
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex structures conveys the argument, but agreement, article, comparative, possessive, and preposition errors recur.
Correct forms such as "a company pays," "a higher salary than," "decisions determine," and "assigned strategic roles."
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Many people have complained about the large salaries paid to top executives of major companies. Why do you think top executives are so well paid? Do you think their large salaries are justified?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.