[lbo-talk] A stark measure of the widening inequality

[Marv Gandall]

The latest research by the Economic Policy Institute confirms the enormous pay gap which has opened between US bosses and workers in the wake of the decline in union density and militancy. 

According to the EPI, CEO compensation, including stock options, was  20% higher than that of their workers in 1969. The ratio widened to 30-1 in 1978 and 58-1 in 1989. Now, the liberal think tank reckons CEO’s earn on average 278 times more than what it loosely describes as the “typical” worker.

“From 1978 to 2018, inflation-adjusted compensation based on realized stock options of the top CEOs increased 940.3%. …substantially greater than the painfully slow 11.9% growth in a typical worker’s annual compensation over the same period”, the study estimates.

https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-compensation-2018/