CEOs Rake in 940% More Than 40 Years Ago, While Average Workers Earn 12% More

It is my belief that that there is an imperative to stop normalizing, defending, and being complicit with capitalism and instead recognize that we are in the throes of this deadly late stage neoliberal predatory capitalist system that is absolutely destroying our country, other nations, and the planet. Whether we call it democratic socialism or by another name, it’s up to us to work together to elect Bernie Sanders and other authentic progressives — and Not corporate democrats or corporate republicans — and to dismantle the capitalist systems and ideology of domination which are at the root of so much suffering and death on Earth. It is time to birth a New Story to live by — one which cherishes life rather than destroys it. 🙏 Molly

By KATE GIBSON

• CEO compensation rose 940% from 1978 to 2018, compared with a 12% rise in pay for the average American worker during the same period, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
• In 2018, average CEO pay at the 350 biggest U.S. companies was $17.2 million.
• Chief executives at large companies make roughly $278 for every $1 a typical worker earns — that's up from a ratio of 20-to-1 back in 1965 and a ratio of 58-to-1 in 1989.

The chasm between what the country's corporate leaders and their workers earn is widening to Grand Canyon-like proportions, according to new research that shows CEO compensation surged 940% between 1978 to 2018 while the average worker saw a meager 12% pay hike over the same 40-year period.

"CEOs are getting more because of their power to set pay, not because they are increasing productivity or possess specific, high-demand skills," economist Lawrence Mishel and research assistant Julia Wolfe said in the report from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank.

Depending on how it's calculated, the average pay of CEOs at the 350 biggest U.S. companies last year came to $17.2 million, the EPI research found. (Or, alternatively, about $14 million, with the smaller number valuing the stock options that make up a big chunk of CEO pay at the time they were granted rather than when they were cashed in at typically higher prices.)  

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