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NewsFlash; July 27, 2006

CEO Pay vs. Lowest-Paid Workers

While Congress continues its debate over whether the nation’s employers can afford raises for the nation’s lowest-paid workers, a new Economic Policy Institute analysis provides some important context for answering that question.

In today’s Snapshot EPI’s president Lawrence Mishel compares what companies paid their CEOs in 2005 to what their lowest paid, minimum-wage workers are paid. With CEO pay up sharply and the minimum wage falling farther and farther behind inflation, the average CEO’s compensation outstripped minimum wage pay by a ratio of 821 to 1 last year. At the current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour it took a full 52-week year of work to earn what the average CEO earned before lunch on the first day of the year.

Click here for today’s Snapshot.

For more on CEO pay in 2005, see the June 21 Snapshot here.

For more on EPI president Lawrence Mishel, click here.

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