Found at Jobsanger. The numbers correspond to those published elsewhere:
The already astronomical ratio between the pay of CEOs and their workers climbed even higher in 2014, the AFL-CIO said Wednesday in its annual Executive Paywatch report.The topic is discussed at the New York Times.
The ratio jumped to 374-to-one in 2014, up from 331-to-one in 2013, the union report said, noting that back in 1980 it stood at 42-to-one.
“When the C.E.O. of a company makes almost $20 million a year but then tries to outsource jobs, reduce wages and cut health benefits — that’s the kind of corporate greed we need to get rid of in America,” Mr. Sanders’s campaign wrote in an email to supporters recently. “And that’s exactly what Verizon is doing right now.”Starting her campaign last year, Mrs. Clinton contrasted working Americans with chief executives. “Families have fought their way back from tough economic times,” she wrote in a campaign email. “But it’s not enough — not when the average C.E.O. makes about 300 times what the average worker makes.”No less than Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee and a wealthy businessman himself, suggested that executive pay was, in some instances, excessive. “You see these guys making these enormous amounts of money,” Mr. Trump said on “Face the Nation” last year. “It’s a total and complete joke.”The presidential contenders are responding to a sense of outrage among many working-class men and women.
I sometimes wonder if the gap between CEO pay and average worker salary is also widening becasue of the size of companies. As lager and larger corporations eat up smaller competitors there is far more business activity and a larger pool of workers with a more limited pool of CEOs. Not positive myself but it could in part be because where we once had 10,000 CEOs we may now have 3,000 (as very simple example).
ReplyDeleteI think this will definitely be a factor - i would expect the biggest companies have turnover way in excess of what big companies had in the passed, given increasingly globalised and international businesses.
DeleteThat said the balance is still wrong. I would recommend public policy that states that CEOs can only be paid x-times the amount of the lowest paid full-time worker in their organisation.
I don't know what ratio, but for the sake of argument lets say 100x is a reasonable ratio. On that basis if they want to pay CEOs $3m a year they need to pay their lowest paid staff 30k a year. It wouldn't prevent companies from rewarding CEOs with high pay, they would just have to do so by raising pay-scales across the organisation accordingly.
This is just wrong. When wealth is held in the hands of the few and so very many are unemployed, it creates an unhealthy society.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right; hopelessness and despair causes other social issues and no one seems to put this together. Easier to blame the 'loser' for all of societies ills.
DeleteThis is one of the things I really respect about Whole Foods Market. Their executives have a self-imposed pay cap of 19x the average employee wage.
ReplyDeleteIt's time to eat the CEO's ........
ReplyDelete