New research published Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute shows that the top executives at the largest corporations in the United States now make 320 times more than what their typical employees earn in wages and benefits.
“CEO pay can be curbed to reduce the growing gap between the highest earners and everyone else with little, if any, impact on the output of the economy or firm performance.”
—Jori Kandra, Economic Policy Institute
EPI’s latest annual analysis of executive compensation finds that the CEOs of the top 350 firms in the U.S. raked in an average of $21.3 million in 2019, a 14% increase from 2018. The 320-1 ratio of CEO-to-worker pay in 2019 is more than five times higher than the 61-1 ratio reported in 1989.
The think tank’s research comes amid a global pandemic that is likely to exacerbate the decades-long trend of surging income and wealth inequality in the U.S.—a trend that, according to EPI, won’t be reversed by CEOs opting to take salary cuts during a public health crisis that has left tens of millions of Americans jobless.
EPI’s new report shows that CEO […]
What we really need is a president who would be more like FDR and do what he (FDR) did during his crisis; which may have been different, but at least as drastic as the one we have now with climate change threatening to destroy our planet and the Coronavirus threatening to keep growing and killing people, with no relief, or even an effort for relief, in sight from the top politicians. We need a more social, and wellbeing oriented type of method of containing the problems we have, starting at the top. I hope (but with some doubt) that Biden will be that type of president. I know for a fact that Trump will continue to give false hope with his lies, and not do anything intelligent. Our crisis is undoubtedly even worse than that of FDR’s crisis. All I can do is hope and pray that we get all the relief we need.
For comparison’s sake, the Mondragon Cooperatives in Spain are more than 50 years old, have over 80,000 worker owners, are deeply involved in hi-tech and higher education as well as more traditional manufacturing- and a rule followed religiously is the CEO of a company within the network can only make 6 times the lowest wage of worker/owners in that particular co-op. They are not co-ops in the American sense: One can ‘buy’ only one share, and when retiring or leaving it must be resold for the same price. profit comes to workers by other means. CEOs with such high salaries as is common in the U.S. are parasites. https://praxispeace.org/assets/pdf/THE-MONDRAGON-REPORT.pdf