In one day, the average CEO earns more before lunchtime than a full-time minimum wage worker makes in a year.
That’s the lead statistics in a new DMI Injustice Index. Just in case anyone missed the point, DMI reports that the ratio between CEO pay and the minimum wage is the highest in US history (821 to 1). And the SEC chose this moment when everyone is distracted by the holidays to reverse an earlier rule so that it will be easier to underreport CEO pay through stock options.
I understand the the guy (and it still is a guy in most companies) in the corner office gets paid more than everyone else. I’m not filled with class resentment over that fact. But I am filled with outrage over the fact that in good times and bad times, CEO salaries keep going up while workers’ wages remain essentially flat.
The middle class has been hit by the one-two punch of flat wages and rising costs in housing, medical, utilities, child care, transportation, and taxes. If working stiffs and CEOs had enjoyed the same rates of increase, maybe more families could afford health insurance and even put a few dollars away in savings.
There has been endless talk about the politics of division. Pundits from both the right and the left deride politicians who use wedge issues to separate Americans. In 2000, George W. Bush appealed to middle class Americans by describing himself as a “uniter, not a divider.”
But these economic divisions are real. America’s bounty isn’t being shared by all those who work hard to produce it.
And many pay all of their Social Security and Medicare contributions for the year on that first day whereas the great majority of employees pay these fees on every paycheck throughout the year. It is an additional way that the wealthy pay a much smaller percentage of gross income in taxes.