CEOs just keep getting richer in the U.S. According to
research conducted by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), U.S. corporate executives have been focusing hard on ballooning top-level pay - while restricting wages for lowest-pay workers. In fact, that
"CEO-to-worker" gap in pay has skyrocketed all the way to a ratio of 631-to-1.
The IPS specifically looked at the 100 corporations with the lowest median worker pay out of all S&P 500 companies, and found that their average yearly compensation for
CEOs was $17,200,000! By contrast, their workers were paid a median amount of
$35,570. Per year.
What do these executives need $17.2 million per year for? Why is this allowed? The U.S. Congress has the authority to act on this, and it absolutely should. Ask Congress to pass a law capping these obscene and unreasonable pay gaps! Sign the petition!But that $17.2 million figure was just the average CEO compensation amount. That number climbs far higher for some corporations. Take
Starbucks for example. The company had the largest CEO-to-worker pay gap last year.
It awarded its CEO $95.8 million last year. That was 6,666 times more than its median pay.
Median worker pay was only $14,674 that same year.
Other companies at the top of that unethical list, besides Starbucks, include
Coca-Cola, Chipotle, and Carnival cruises. Walmart, Estee Lauder, DoorDash, Ulta Beauty, Lowe's, and Home Depot also appear on the "Low-Wage 100" list. These corporations have spawned the creation of
32 billionaires around the world.
Right now, people in the U.S. can't afford to buy homes. They can barely pay rent. The cost of housing has surged astronomically over the past 50 years, while real wages for day-to-day workers have flatlined.
Average American workers are breaking their backs and exhausting themselves to the core to keep corporations afloat. Meanwhile, the rich keep insisting on getting richer, feasting on the burnt-out sacrifices of everyday people. This is pure exploitation, plain and simple.
As Sarah Anderson, author of the IPS report and director of the IPS's Global Economy Project, said: "Median pay increased only modestly, whereas CEO pay really skyrocketed... In the midst of all of this [radical increase in costs of living], CEOs are focused on making themselves even richer, instead of thinking about the welfare of their employees or even the long-term growth of their company."
Congress has an ethical duty to the 342 million people who live in the U.S. - the vast majority of whom are not CEOs or billionaires - to pass legislation protecting them from this kind of reckless exploitation. If a law like this doesn't get passed, ask yourself: to whom is your Congressperson loyal? Is it to the working people, or to the billionaires?Sign the petition to join us in calling for an end to this gross discrepancy in pay! No one deserves to be earning 6,000 times more than their employees. This disgusting display of greed and disrespect for hard-working people must end. Congress must pass a law capping CEO-to-Worker pay ratios!