A rigged economy: CEO pay surged 14% in 2019 to $21.3 million on average, and they now earn 320 times as much as their typical workers.
Read our new report from @LarryMishel and @joriskywalker. epi.org/publication/ce…
Read our new report from @LarryMishel and @joriskywalker. epi.org/publication/ce…
Wage growth for the majority of Americans has remained relatively stagnant for decades, but CEO compensation continues to balloon. CEO compensation grew by 1,167% from 1978 to 2019, while the compensation of a typical worker rose just 13.7%.
CEO compensation has even grown more than three times faster than the growth of earnings for the top 0.1% of earners, which was 337% from 1978 to 2018.
CEOs offering salary cuts during the pandemic yield press releases but no real progress toward reducing inequality and raising workers’ wages. Corporate executives who volunteer to take salary cuts aren’t making a large sacrifice because salaries comprise only 6% of compensation.
While Congress, namely Senate Republicans, can’t even agree to give $600 to unemployed workers during a pandemic, they have looked the other way as CEO pay has skyrocketed for decades. Here’s what Congress can do.
• Reinstate higher marginal income tax rates at the top of the income ladder
• Set higher corporate tax rates for firms that have higher CEO-to-worker compensation ratios
• Cap compensation & tax anything over the cap
• Allow a firm’s shareholders to vote on executives’ pay
• Set higher corporate tax rates for firms that have higher CEO-to-worker compensation ratios
• Cap compensation & tax anything over the cap
• Allow a firm’s shareholders to vote on executives’ pay
Learn more about our report from @jenamcgregor at the @washingtonpost: washingtonpost.com/business/2020/…
