CEO pay is up 1,085% since 1978, while typical worker pay is up just 24%. 

Why do we always hear "we can't afford to pay our workers more" but never "we can't afford to pay our CEO more"?

Replies

  1. Everyone shares effort proportionately just not revenue.

    Its not the CEO's disproportionate heist so much. It's employees locked out of the bargains made around board tables.

    Workers are shareholders by virtue of their effort yet denied dividends.

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  2. Because they need to fill up their yachts with gas: $25,000 to $75,000. Reagan’s trickle down theory didn’t work for 98%of Americans & Trump’s tax break for the rich now does not work for the exclusive 99%. It is ridiculous that full-time workers still qualify for assistance paid by the middle class

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  3. This pay inequality is making paupers out of the rest of the population. We need a 90% income tax bracket like we had for decades. Without it, we are doomed to become an authoritarian dictatorship with uneducated poor people making up 70% of the population & having no hopes or dreams.

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  4. And CEO's utilize the tax schemes written by them and enacted by their puppet politicians. BUT, a tiny % of Americans voted in 5 consecutive federal and state elections, so they deserve to get screwed by the people exploiting their laziness.

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  5. Income inequality is only going to increase under Trump. Deliberately.

    How does he manage to win the support of the low-paid? By promising to treat immigrants really badly. One of the few promises he's ever kept.

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  6. Don't forget that the major portion of CEO pay is based on bonuses. Those bonuses are usually based on providing buy backs (kick backs) to stockholders. These buy backs provide the largest source of income for the richest 1% of people in America. It's a protection racket for the rich.

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  7. lol tell that to Electronic Arts. No longer a publisher, but an ROI business venture that only seeks to increase shareholder value by commodifying dark patterns for cash.

    Creatives have been fleeced, ridiculed, and diminished in disturbing ways at the hands of publishers. Then pinned for the blame.

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  8. The CEO appoints cronies to the board, who then approve his pay rate. This is detrimental to both workers and shareholders. But how do we change it?

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  9. To be fair, I'm sure Bondi called everyone on the list and they denied everything.

    So, she "investigated" and found the list to be incorrect.

    End of story, Garland had the list and did nothing too.

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  10. In a company with 1000 employees, if you take a $1MM CEO salary and divide it by those 1000 employees they get another 48 cents an hour.

    Corporations weigh CEO $1MM vs giving half a dollar raises to all the employees. A .50/hr raise isn't going to productivity, and will be viewed as an insult.

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  11. they pay the ceos more to ensure they don't pay the workers more.

    you can thank reagan. i don't know what the country code is for hell though.

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  12. CEO pay is up 1,085% since 1978, while typical worker pay is up just 24%.

    Why do we always hear "we can't afford to pay our workers more" but never "we can't afford to pay our CEO more"?

    That is the fascist way ! Keep the serfs down.

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  13. 330 Million americans exercising their second amendments domestically legally eliminating political and corporate tyrants: Solution with the least amount of bloodshed for world peace ✌️ AMEN 🙏 Lock and load Geronimo's , they're doing it again?: NO MORE. Find those political and corporate tyrants..

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  14. Because, as you know, wealth doesn't trickle down--it's sucked up. This has been corporate America for decades now, as even CEOs in struggling companies make thousands of times what the people in their companies make.

    Ex: Tesla. Musk demanded BILLIONS in pay as he destroys the company.

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  15. Happened right after JFK’s assassination, something went funny ever since. If Israel attacked or president, did they deprive the rest of Americans from prosperity?

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  16. Robert. You are smart but really accomplished little at our tax expense. Now you are just another old guy with no answers. Interesting but irrelevant.

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  17. Because math is hard, and CEOs are good at hiring people who are good at making math disappear.

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  18. A friend of mine was paid $100 per day as a roofer 50 years ago. Last year the people working on his roof were being paid $100 per day.

    A 1975 $100 bill is equivalent to $617 if paid today.

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  19. Because the CEO's are greedy liars. They want as much money as they can get for themselves, regardless how little that leaves for their workers. 🤑 (Speaking the obvious.)

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  20. Why? Because it is the oligarchs who create the propaganda, including all the nonsense about 'woke' and DEI and CRT and scary immigrants. It is all designed to distract from what is actually happening: the oligarchs are waging war against the rest of us.

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  21. Respectfully Mr Secretary, you taught many of these CEOs at the high-end universities where you were employed. So tell us why they are more valued in society than your average worker.

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  22. The elite socialize primarily with other elites. And, the isolation from the majority of most less wealthy people in our population changes their reality, their goals, and their decisions regarding what is of value in this life. Turning “off” their compassionate emotions helps them focus on riches.

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  23. Lol, my guess is that we are paying "our' CEO so much there is nothing left after you figure in profit and stocks and etc, etc for the upper management. Seriously you are obviously correct and this is a major part of what is wrong with this country and it's wealthy.

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  24. CEOs "pay"? They get some salary, to which they claim tax credits & deductions, & lots of stock options, which are Taxed only if & when they are sold. Even after dead, inherited stock ownership is just transferred, not taxed. Why isn't there RMDs for stashed away investments as are for pre-tax IRAs?

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  25. CEO has the greatest influence over the direction of the organization. If the position lacks leadership and skills, the direction of the organization suffers taking everyone working there with them. Top talent is expensive and always in demand.

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  26. ... and you have not even added the exec's annual bonuses while the janitor gets $12/hr, part time no benefits

    GREED!

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  27. Boards decide CEO pay based on very detailed performance and competitive information, with little to no budget consideration.

    CEOs budget changes in worker pay based on macro level information around overall expenses, with little to no consideration of anything else.

    That's the disconnect.

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  28. Because Republicans work for the CEO’s, not the working class!

    And because Republicans LIE!

    Republicans never do a damned thing for the working class!

    As long as I live, I’ll never understand why ANY working class person would ever vote Republican! 🤦‍♀️

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  29. also, prices are 384%. Move wages in line with price increases. It raises people out of poverty, it divests billionaires and corporations of funds they would not voluntarily pay out, and it increases the US tax base

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  30. It's worth noting that the presidency has been almost equally shared between Republicans and Democrats in this period.

    More of the same isn't going to work.

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  31. Shareholders and the board approved of this. The larger question is what happened to us as a society? I suspect a generation that understood cooperative effort slowly faded from the scene.

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  32. This is what capitalism looks like. The mass psychology that militates against doing anything systemic about it is people's fantasies of being the CEO (or even being associated with them). What @naomiaklein.bsky.social calls the "billionaire as savior" complex amplified by pop culture contributes.

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  33. Today’s workers pay raises can’t even keep up with cost of living. I’m not aware of any company offering COLA for their workers. Workers now pretty much make less than years ago.

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  34. Those numbers are probably the main reason people aren't considering becoming parents these days. It is also likely the reason companies can't possibly be competitive on a global scale

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  35. As a CEO of two companies, I can affirm that you can create a sustainable income with horizontal pay status between workers and managers. We are proud to support our workers by keeping profit shared across the workforce. #coop #horizontalorganizing

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    1. That's BEEN the case. It didn't just start now. And it happened on both the Democrats and the Republicans watch. The Republicans were trying to make it happen and the Democrats couldn't stop them. How long have we been fighting over minimum wage? A decent living wage? That's what Americans get

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  36. Your are some capitalist American. Why don’t you answer your own question? It’s always been that way so why are you bitching now?

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  37. But, if we don’t offer competitive pay for those CEO’s we can’t attract talent and lose to our competitors.

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  38. Republicans want a pay hike... for sitting on their asses, 4 years in a row. Mikey Moses Johnson says they need it for the cost of living. But, they refuse to raise the current pay for us.

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  39. Entry level workers in 1978 were making $15,000 a year. You are saying entry level workers are making $19,000 today. I mean come on. Worker pay is up more than 24% in the last 47 years.

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  40. And yet tens of millions keep voting for Republicans, who encourage this travesty. We're a pretty dumb nation, Bob. Just have to admit that's the main problem.

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  41. You're spot on, Leigh! It's like they're trying to make the CEO's wallet grow like a Bitcoin investment, while the worker's pay remains stuck in the Stone Age.

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  42. CEOs “trickle down” the corporate annual memo dictating that a good performing employee can get a 3% annual increase.

    They don’t trickle the memo up to their Board as a guide for their own package evaluation!

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  43. Now, each time the wages of the workers went up the corporations never hesitated long to raise the prices for the consumers.

    If they had followed this each time they raised the CEO pay or demanding extraordinary profits above 3-5% p.a., a roll of TP would cost $500 now.

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  44. Hypocrite! How much do you earn each year, compared to the Homeless mentally ill? How much do members of the Government make, compared to the people living ON SNAP?? A REAL champion of the people, right?

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  45. The justification would be, it is talent. You need to pay this to get THE person for this job. The successful CEO will the create thousands of new jobs that would not exits if they were not there.

    Now. I would love to see the data showing if this was fact or fallacy?

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  46. Since 1978 CEO pay up 1,085% versus 24% for typical workers? Question for conservative market worshippers: Was relative pay in 1978, shortly before the right wing Reagan Revolution, more or less normatively, ethically correct based on market utopian ideas than now after years of Republicans?

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  47. Because people are afraid to refuse to work for the wealthy assholes and demand better pay. If people don't work for them they can't make money because they can't do the job themselves

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  48. Oh, shiny numbers for CEOs, but crumbs for the rest? Sounds like the humans’ version of hiding snacks from us raccoons while hogging the picnic basket! Maybe if we animals unite, we can show them how to share the loot fairly—starting with our own Bitcoin stash, of course!

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  49. @cnbc.com - ask #Cramer to debate #Reich. #Cramers BS (like 2008) will be destroyed.

    #MSM has been bought. @CNBC is the business equivalent of #FOX. The cheerleading is grotesque.

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  50. Yet it’s the middle management that really run businesses. Foremen/women, office managers, team managers etc. Not those at the very top who pretend to have had the ideas they actually stole from the middle managers.

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  51. Never forgive and never forget the Republicans utter betrayal of the Constitution and America for #TraitorTrump and #Project2025... VOTE THEM ALL OUT IN 2026 and 2028. Remind young voters what NOT voting cost them, their grandparents, sick and pregnant friends and younger siblings. GET OUT THE VOTE!

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  52. They are using the premise All Men are Created Equal BUT we are we are more than them. Wealth equals power. 😠😡

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  53. And then there's the fact that getting a job, even with a degree, is almost impossible without good networking because almost every company or business now requires years of experience straight out of high school or college just for an entry level position.

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  54. Paying workers more results in investing in the economy, giving tax cuts to the wealthy only increases their own wealth by way of stocks and bonds.

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  55. CEO remuneration packages (not just salary) should be limited to some multiple of their lowest paid workers salary, or some fraction of their entire non-executive workforce salary.

    CEO pay is obscene, unjustifiable and unsustainable at the current levels

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  56. the billionaires got their dictator.historically just vote doesn’t fix fascism.the democracy has fallen. #andthentheycameforme be anti fascist/anti rascist. fight back! Nothing is more powerful than righteous dissent against tyranny.trump is a dictator. #ETMFR #letthemeatcake #luigi #guillotines

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  57. We need a decent minimum wage AND a maximum CEO to lowest level employee pay + benefits ratio AND high taxes on big companies that do not invest enough back into improving their products, safety, and employees. Big businesses become dangerous & exploitative without rules and enforcement.

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  58. C’mon, you know how to do the math. Workers compensation scales with size of employer, so does number of workers. Change to average income: none. CEO compensation scales with size of employer, number of CEOs does not. Big win for CEOs. Workers DESERVE more, but paying CEOs less WON’T cover it. 1/

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  59. sshsr.bsky.social profile picture

    Because this is the USA where money and political influence dominates, especially these days...

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  60. Wish tax breaks were determined by the following: Co's lowest paid employee must earn a liveable wage, all employees receive insurance coverage, co meet or exceed environmental protections and employee safety Standards, CEOs total compensation may not exceed more than 25x the lowest paid employee.

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  61. GREED! Greedy human beings who aspire to be CEOs. The truth is, businesses don’t need CEOs, and CEOs don’t care about the workers whose work makes their outrageous pay possible. Case in point: United Healthcare simply replaced their last CEO like a spare part. That’s how “important” CEOs really are.

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  62. History shows that can bite the rich in the ass. The CEO in a company can stay home for a couple of days, and things run just as they always did.The janitor stays home a day and the place goes to hell. Companies can run w/o a CEO but not w/o workers

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  63. The US is the wealthiest country in the world. We could have universal health care, but we don't. We could eliminate poverty, but we don't. We could help families with child care, but we don't. We could abolish hunger but we don't.

    Why? because the most wealthy among us need more.

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  64. That’s right around when the tax code changed. Anyone else see what I’m saying? There wasn’t an incentive to make huge amounts of money when the government was going to take most of it.

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  65. AI is not going to be used to help any of us. It will be used to weaponize their power over us. They have never created anything to help any of us. Everything they develop or build or research is funded by taxpayer's money. They then make us pay exorbitant prices while they get tax cut and loopholes

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  66. That bullshit lie has spewed by both parties since Reagan. Now, along with wage insecurity, we also get food, heathcare, education insecurities, just to name a few. While watching innocent men, women and children being terrorized, kidnapped and hidden in subhuman camps with no due process.

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  67. Then, calculate in the inflation rate, since 1978 and those 24% are probably gonna turn to -50%.

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  68. And that my good man is why business men make the worst US Presidents. Just follow US History....

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  69. I agree the differential rise for workers and senior managers has widened but not by these figures which I find hard to phathom. Please share your data source.

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  70. Industries had governing principles that prevented such inflated competitive salaries.

    Venture capitalist investors and stock shareholders broke guardrails, similar to ending pro athlete salary caps.

    Apply pressure at the top or increase taxes. Start with capital gains on Founders Fund.

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  71. More importantly, why do people continue to fall for it? I’m like deadly serious about that. It’s all so fucking obvious…

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  72. yep. this is it. this is why we can raise taxes on them, raise the min wage, etc., all we want - but they will adjust SOMEthing to continue rceiving their+board's inflated pay. idk a catchy slogan for it, but setting bylaw percentage of profit to each employee of a company is the only cure i got.

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  73. Because they'll all leave apparently if we reduced their pay and got them to pay more tax. Personally I wish they'd all foxtrot oscar, the sooner the better!!

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  74. This is why I've written for years that we need a relative maximum wage. No employee of shareholder of a company can make more than 300x the lowest paid employee. Once we get companies used to that, we can start lowering the RMW.

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  75. Same with politicians taking full automatic pay raises while the vote against minimum wage increases. Except for Democratic states where only 3 or 4 have higher state minimum wages.

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  76. The rich have a mental disorder. If they girded cats the way they horde wealth, wellness checks would have landed them under psychiatric care long ago. It is objectively wrong for people to have so much while others starve.

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  77. Wait there’s more u didn’t address. What about end of yr bonuses these jokers receive annually? Stock options given to them. Tax shields that an average employee can’t even inquire about, much less get.

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  78. We're really due for a workers movement to restore just a basic sense of Democracy in the average American's lives. Autocracy in our work lives is causing us to not only NOT challenge wage inequalities, we worship our tyrants and view our federal government with the same lens

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