Media clips
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CEO pay may not be quite as high as it once was, but the numbers still dwarf the pay earned by the typical worker. Chief executives of America’s 350 largest companies made an average of $15.6 million in 2016, or 271 times more than what the typical worker made last year, according to the Economic Policy Institute’s annual report on executive compensation, released Thursday. The report from the left-leaning think tank said that number was slightly lower than 2015, when average pay was $16.3 million and the ratio was 286-to-1. (whole story)
The Washington Post July 21, 2017 -
It pays to be CEO. Even in 1965, chief executive officers were pulling in $843,000 a year, and their compensation has only skyrocketed since. According to a new report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute (EPI), CEO pay peaked in 2000 at $20.7 million (in 2016 dollars) and, in 2016, “CEOs in America’s largest firms made an average of $15.6 million in compensation, or 271 times the annual average pay of the typical worker.” That’s “5.33 times greater than wages of the top 0.1 percent of wage earners,” the EPI reports. (whole story)
CNBC July 21, 2017 -
While it’s no surprise that CEOs make a lot of money, the actual pay gap between top chiefs and rest of America’s biggest earners is startling: The average CEO at one of the 350 largest companies takes home more than five times the annual earnings of the average 0.1 percenter. According to a new report on CEO pay from the Economic Policy Institute, chief executives at those 350 companies made $15.6 million on average in 2016—271 times what the typical worker earns. (whole story)
Fortune July 21, 2017 -
EPI: CEO PAY STILL REALLY HIGH: A report out today from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute concludes that CEO pay, though it’s declined a bit relative to average wages, remains absurdly high relative to that average. Factoring in stock options realized (on top of salary, bonuses, restricted stock grants, and long-term incentive payouts), “in 2016 CEOs in America’s largest firms made an average of $15.6 million in compensation, or 271 times the annual average pay of the typical worker,” write EPI’s Lawrence Mishel and Jessica Schieder. “While the 2016 CEO-to-worker compensation ratio of 271-to-1 is down from 299-to-1 in 2014 and 286-to-1 in 2015, it is still light years beyond the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965 and the 59-to-1 ratio in 1989.” Read the full report here.
Politico July 21, 2017 -
In 2016, CEOs at America’s largest firms made, on average, 271 times more than the average US worker. Fifty years ago, that ratio was 20-to-1.
The CEO-to-worker pay ratio, calculated annually by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, has narrowed slightly in recent years; in 2014, it was 299-to-1. But it has grown by an order of magnitude since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping data in the 1960s, and has even doubled many times over since the late 1980s, when it was 59-to-1. (whole story)
Bill Moyers July 21, 2017 -
In April, Trump ordered the Department of Commerce to investigate steel imports under a little-known part of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Section 232, which allows the executive branch to place import restrictions or tariffs on steel for national security reasons. “Steel and aluminum are vital for U.S. national defense and critical infrastructure,” Robert E. Scott of the Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center think tank, said in a piece supporting the idea. “The military needs high quality steel and aluminum to make products ranging from helmets and tanks to rocket fuel, fighter jets and aircraft carriers.” Foreign trade practices have made it impossible for the United States to supply its own steel for defense purposes, the theory goes.
The Atlantic July 21, 2017 -
Another Reason Why It’s Great The BBC Revealed Anchors’ Salaries
The Huffington Post/Emily Peck
“If you don’t have the information, you can’t act on it,” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the progressive Economic Policy Institute who studies the pay gap, told HuffPost. She pointed out that in unionized workplaces, where employees have more information about pay, there are smaller pay disparities between genders. In any workplace, information is power. Workers can’t advocate for equal pay until they know where they stand, compared with their colleagues. Public pressure that comes from releasing detailed information helps, too, Gould added.
The Huffington Post July 21, 2017 -
Daniel Costa, director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, said the increase was “hypocritical.”
“The signs started pointing to a crackdown on the high-skilled visas — even if it was symbolic — and now it seems like there might be an expansion on the low-skilled ones,” Costa said. “The Republican party is pretty split when it comes to labor migration issues, and I think there is going to be a back-and-forth every time an issue like this comes out.”
San Francisco Chronicle July 21, 2017 -
In its announcement, the Department of Homeland Security noted that businesses only qualify for the visas if they can prove that they are likely to “suffer irreparable harm” if unable to hire foreign workers. But critics are skeptical that labor shortages are as severe as companies claim. The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank that Trump has aligned himself with on certain issues, argued in a recent report that almost all of the top 10 occupations for H-2B workers have relatively high unemployment rates and have experienced stagnant or declining wages since 2004. That, the group argues, suggests there is no shortage of available workers, at least on a national level. (The report does note that it is possible that states and local areas are experiencing a limited labor pool for these jobs but claims the H-2B program maintains a framework that exploits foreign workers.)
FiveThirtyEight July 21, 2017 -
The pay gap between company bigwigs and ordinary working stiffs is narrowing, but there’s still a major chasm. CEOs at the largest U.S. firms now make 271 times more than the average worker, according to calculations by the Economic Policy Institute for 2016 salary numbers. Including stock options, average pay for those at the top of the corporate ladder came to $15.6 million in the group that the EPI examined. (whole story)
CNBC July 20, 2017