The clearest picture of corporate greed in this country is CEO-to-worker pay ratios.
At the 100 lowest-paying major US companies, CEO pay averaged $17.2M in 2024.
Median worker pay at these companies was just $35,570.
That’s a ratio of 632 to 1.
How can anyone defend this?
That's awful. It's disgusting. Makes me want to puke.
the beauty of rich successful businesses should be their contributions to society, employees, productivity, taxes, philanthropy, make all the money you can but pay, dont get rich by paying employees the bare minimum and pay less taxes than those working to make them rich
america has one year before disappearing.Every “deal” being signed isn’t between america and other countries.Every deal is between major countries around the world. That don’t trust american politics. Your beloved farmland has been left behind by trades between Brazil and China.Amongst many others.
W o r k e r o w n e r s h i p or no business.
And one worker = one vote.
Well damn, shouldn't those workers be happy they got a 3% raise this year? That's like $88 more a month. I mean it's not as much as the CEO's 3%, $43000 a month, but hey who the fuck cares?!
No one can defend this.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol is one of the worst.
Niccol’s boss-to-pleb pay ratio in 2024 was 6,666 times larger than the median.
No wonder the company has gotten even shittier.
Because they're republican scumbags
They don't need to defend it ... there's no one to stop them.
You called it!
Easy to defend from the receiving end!🫤
In 1950, it was closer to 20:1.
A democracy cannot survive when boardrooms resemble Versailles. A CEO-to-worker pay ratio of 632:1 is not economics; it is sanctioned theft dressed in a suit. The defenders of this grotesque inequity are not patriots but courtiers of oligarchy.
Almost like we built and maintain an economic system that is designed to have this outcome
This is why our out of control capitalistic culture has led us to fascism. The masses have been brutalized to the bone and brought to their knees by it; what better way to let fascism set in. Here's a good discussion the brutalization:
TikTok video by The Diary Of A CEO
Cuz rich people pay all the taxes! (EXTREME SARCASM) You cannot and I don't think it will happen in my lifetime, but I think in my kids or possibly their kids people are going to want a TOP WAGE set or some form of boogety, boogety, boogety SOCIALISM, That stops wanton greed.
It’s just wild that people will do mental gymnastics to argue the CEO is working 632 times as hard as their employees. A world where CEO’s are still really wealthy but their employees are taken care of can exist.
it doesn't exist, does it?
I'm a CEO. I make dick, making dick. 😆 My staff make more than me!
Thy don't have to defend it...They just do it because they can and they don't care...😡
If only we could have the 325 CEO-to-worker pay ??? ... Ah the Good Old Days.
This is indefensible…except by the wealthy who believe that they deserve more than the working class.
It’s time for a general strike to show the power of the working class
#GeneralStrike
Oh, but they need tax breaks!
It is indefensible, and it's why they distract with the most outrageous and bizarre threats and behavior ever found in any democratic government, anywhere.
Greed.
"The quagmire; They have a perverse understanding of human psychology."
Board of directors can, apparently.
Corporate greed is outrageous! With this economy and inflation workers need to have increased wages!
Some just don't realize it's coming.
Bed Bath & Beyond won’t open stores in CA because they have to pay living wages. But they’ll gladly ship to CA customers so there is that. “Sorry grandma, it’s too expensive for me to come visit you but I’ll send you a card!”
And whenever there is a crisis, the CEO says “I wasn’t aware of that”!
Playing The Politics of Envy is Reich’s favorite pastime.
Even if it is 100 to one that still a lot of dough.
No! They shouldn't be able to!
(sarcasm follows) But-mmmm-,,,,,well,,,, business. And trump is good at business. And reagan told us and ---oh look over there! Is that a trans illegal alien eating a cat while committing crimes? That's who's taking your money.!
Just ask a Republican...
They will tell you CEOs are the job creators and deserve every penny they get!!!
In reality, the only job creators are CUSTOMERS WITH MONEY TO SPEND!!
Labor has been disparaged in the U.S. ever since Reagan was elected in 1980.
It is indefensible. That the top tier shiny bums get 632 times more than the ones that actually produce the objects. Without the actual workers producing the objects those shiny bums would get jack sh*t. Here is a Clue anyone given the right info can make correct decisions.
The US version of capitalism - it’s a scheme to make a select group of people ultra wealthy dressed up as free markets.
We need a serious revolution.
Thank you for sharing actual information again.
The problem is they dont feel they have to justify this
They feel they need more of it, they feel they deserve all of it
They deserve a sharpened edge on a long machine made for one purpose
screenrant.com/patricia-ric...
Booby, I would like to ask Actress Patricia Richardson point of view on CEO compensation vs. Employee pay as she could provide you with a unique insight into pay gaps.
Richardson said no to more Home Improvement.
GREED
Can’t.
No one can. It’s an old boys network that must be dismantled. The practice of paying massive bonuses to CEOs who screw up and are fired should be ended too.
Those CEO ‘s making hundreds of times what workers make clearly PULLED THEMSELVES UP BY THEIR BOOTSTRAPS hahahahahahaha
It's morbidly evil greed.
Capitalism must be dismantled. It's legal thievery, and sure as heck isn't democratic.
MEDIAN pay? Half of the workers made LESS than that?! That’s just immoral.
By being on the corporate take, like most of congress.
It’s gone on for far too long now. It will take a “French Revolution” style revolt to set things right again.
Thank You Robert for being such a good explainerater ;)
I call it corporate slavery. Pay the slaves just enough to survive. People are working to make someone else wealthy.
They can't and they don't . They just eliminate voters who disagree with their corruption.
They are not receiving this money as most is stock options. Why do you not work to pass a law that taxes those options annually instead of waiting until they buy or sell. Also generally works out to less than a penny per employee.
That is the point, Robert, the only defense of it at this point is fascist dictatorship.
That is why the SCOTUS supermajority quite literally nullified the Constitution July 1, 2024, replacing it with serial autocracy.
That is treason in service to the global obscenely wealthy (Super Citizenry).
They don't need to defend it. They just need to buy Republican politicians ( and maybe a few "corporate" Democrats).
The CEO's defend it by pointing out that those workers are peasants who should bark gratefully for the table scraps.
They will say as long as it’s not a woke business. That’s all these soft asshole care about.
It’s criminal!!!
The billion dollar profits on top and the bottom can’t afford to move out of their parents basement. Democrats need to remember who they used to focus on. Bring back the Middle Class!!!
imagine if the ratio was only 20 to 1
Then the average CEO would still get almost $3M and the average employee would get $150k
maybe this should be a law. I think making 20x the average employee is still enough incentive to work hard to become CEO or found a company without being exploitative
Unfortunately, the very people who should be protesting this , poor maga fools are the ones vehemently opposed to it.
I honestly believe that a start (just a start) would be to remove any tax breaks from a company that pays their CEO more than 100 times the average salary at their company.
Nothing will change until Republicans stop voting against their best interests. It seems they don't care as long as minorities and "woke" Democrats are getting the middle finger from the current administration.
Corporate greed this obscene needs no defence - just a corrupt clown in chief to protect it. So they bought the WH. Enter Trump. #Broligarchy #WeDeserveBetter #IncomeInequality
Same with here in Canada. And other countries around the globe. Let’s take it back!
Is there any possibility of making stock buybacks illegal again?
Come a long way since the late 70's when the CEO to worker ratio was just 7 to 1.
Greed and lack of ethics/morals brought us here.
And Trump is the example of it too.
What the rule (in the U.S., under the Dodd-Frank Act) requires is CEO total compensation versus the median worker’s compensation. The idea was: “median” is fairer than “lowest-paid” because it avoids just comparing the boss to a janitor or intern.
Prof , can't take the lowest denominator to compare with the highest denominator can we ?
The CEO-to-worker pay ratio is a measure that compares the total compensation of a company’s CEO with the median pay of its employees.
Love ya Prof , now ya talkin my language , data
Your oppression is their profession. Knowing what you're doing is wrong and continuing to do it, are the clear signs of being Pathologically sociopathic
That's probably not including all the incentives they get too
Please - let them try - would love to hear their explanations - pure crap
The Golden rule: them as have their hands on the gold make the rules.
Same in Britain. Ratio is well beyond justifiable.
And these CEOs do feck all! They are nobodies
In the US, we aren’t just defending it, we are making the nonsensical choice to emulate it even at our highest levels of government.
This “we need a businessman to run the country like a business” nonsense can’t end soon enough.
That's what we serfs have known all along.
CEO’s greed!!! They need a cap of $1 billion and pay taxes which still gives them millions and millions to live on.
People are complaining about high prices, but the problem is corporate greed, stock buyback, executive compensation, anti-union tactics, and states that refuse to hold corporations accountable.
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In 1998 I made $35000 working for Texaco. I don’t know many people making that today.
Compare the Median Worker pay to each county's AMI (Average Median Income) & the difference is staggering. In Santa Clara County, this is less than 30% AMI. In 2021, there were only 24 available units for every 100 people needing housing. Low worker pay is keeping people in poverty or homeless.
It was more or less 100 to 1 in the 80's.
When I mentioned at work that Jeff Bozo didn't need a 500+ ft yacht, my boss said, "but he worked hard to earn his money." I retire in about a year...if I last that long.
Average vs median is propaganda. This is really dumb when you have a valid point to make.
I’m looking forward to another 2% raise next year that gets wiped out by:
Are we great yet?
No further explanation required.
My parents, immigrants to this country, arrived in 1970 w 4 kids and 1 trunk; blue collar workers; bought a house within one year (paid off later); kids in private catholic schools, graduated from univ; all kids with white collar jobs. Where did everything come off the rails in society?
They don't have to defend it.
They have all the money and all the power.
That's what we built here in the US, like it or not.
For the record, I don't like it, either.
When will Americans wake up and cut the cord? Stand up and say no! Stop feeding the PIGS!
Here is one defence. CAPITALISM. Isn’t it great???
We the people have the power to change what is happening to our country, our home, if we decide to use it!
www.mobilize.us/aflcio/?tag_...
Additional examples are sending jobs overseas, paying workers as little as possible while working them as hard as you can, forcing subscriptions on customers, making things to break,...
Yet we continue to work for them and demand nothing…
Capitalism empowers the worst possible people, not only the greedy but the sadistic, fundamentalists, every type of foul character flaw is amplified & weaponized. Eliminating greed & sadism might not be possible but eliminating capitalism would remove vast measures of their leverage over others.
We can thank the rise of elite business schools that taught how to manipulate corporate finance and the rise of elite law firms that quickly learned how to structure corporate finance to enrich those elite business school grads who sit in the C-suites of bib business today
It's disgusting
"Starbucks, the global coffee chain, had the largest pay ratio gap in the entire S&P 500 at 6,666 to 1 last year—Brian Niccol reportedly pocketed $95.8 million while the average worker earned $14,674, the eighth-lowest median pay of any S&P 500 firm, the report found." -Forbes
Oh but CEO’s work so hard and so much more than the average worker and take full responsibility when the 💩 hits the fan!
I'll vote for the candidate that says they'll introduce legislation stating the compensation of the CEO cannot exceed, say, 300% of the compensation of the lowest paid worker.
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$26 an hour would be the current Federal minimum wage if it had kept up with both inflation & productivity increases. Starting in 1981 with President Reagan, 100% of annual productivity increases only went into the business owner's pockets.
Keep voting for these senators that are corporate shills on both sides of the isle. Keep going to work. If we organized a national walkout of work day demanding pay raises and rights they will listen.
Those yachts aren't going to build themselves, after all.
Lots of wake up calls these days seems like! Everything brought into stark relief brought to us by the BBB!!
Worth a 2nd French Revolution.
You can’t?
It is just obscene and getting worse, not better!
We need to start normalizing adding the zeros to the end of million and billion dollar amounts to show people just how much that is. $17,200,000 is a lot more significant looking than 17.2M. It just hits differently.
My employer has 4 employees, including me. I don't know what the other 3 make but I'm around $70k. I was his first employee, and I'm the oldest.
The boss lives in a brand new $5 million dollar waterfront estate and vacations every 3 weeks.
I barely make rent and utilities.
Preach Reich. Call out that shit!
No one is worth 600 times more than another human being.
And what does that mean for the millions of dollars due to stockholders that are being invested to expand the coy pond at their CEO's estate?
This Is What Is Wrong With America!
How? That would be the normative market utopian rhetoric of anti-democracy bad economics in the conservative style, a misinterpretation of neoclassical welfare economics that has been with us, largely unchallenged, for the past four decades. "They have that much merit, and it's socially optimal."
Is there a report available of these? Ripe for thoughtful consumers to help decide where they can
Can not truthfully be defended.
Once the USSR and communism collapsed, there was no need to show workers they were better off under capitalism.
But surely the CEOs 'work hard for the money'?
Greed is the root cause of all evil in America! They eat steak and eggs for breakfast and the workers eat hotdogs for dinner!
It’s sad that the ones that defend it are the ones making just above the minimum wage- as they would rather accept the rich getting richer than the poor getting less poor
Says the guy worth 4 milli. Meanwhile, 70% of America lives paycheck to paycheck.
#Irony
And remember that when they do defend it, it's no different than Trump claiming everything is a witch hunt.
State Farm's CEO's annual pay = $24.4 Million as of 2024.
Apparently, Trump thinks he can defend it. He says all the CEOs, wealth, will leave if we don't reduce their taxes. Where does he think they will go? Most developed nations have a similar or heavier tax structure, and I do not see these fuss pots homesteading in less developed places.
As someone who knows random things about people and your jobs and how much you make? Because my job, is one of those jobs that sees how much you make, your social security#, how much debt you have, what your eye color is, how much you lost in your last divorce.
This is true.
Just an idea...how about people get seriously involved in not giving money to those companies for a change? Full stop.
Walmart and Amazon (for just two examples) runs a sale and y'all just can't wait to give them your money. You do know that they're laughing at you, right?
Well, those in control certainly are doing just that.
Unconscionable!
@rbreich.bsky.social Link the CEO's pay to their lowest payed worker and make the ratio 20:1. Any bonuses or pay rises are apportioned equitably.
Office workers need to unionize.
Or live on it?
No. That is indefensible.
If pay were fair the employees would be making double at minimum, with the cost of living today.
We need new politicians,that have people's best interest as a priority
Cult victims who think CEO pay is good
They can not! They simply don't care- they make enough money NOT to care about anyone!
Sure, but you need to take into account those long CEO hours.. I mean, if a CEO worked 7 days a week and worked 20 hour days they’d work 3.5 times as much as a full-time employee, so they’d only have to be a mere 180x more productive for this to make sense.
The billionaires got their dictator. Today is the worst time for the majority Americans there has ever been. Everyday the fascist regime is practicing its policy. The policy is suffering.
Nope. Greed is real.
Hello
It’s not a market; it’s a funnel, out of the 99%, into the 1%…
Since 1978, CEO pay exploded by over 10x faster growth than worker pay… proof that growth didn’t trickle down; it was vacuumed up…
The boiled frogs are almost ready to eat said the fat king…
I listened to your interview on Fresh Air today and really appreciated your comments.
Somebody start teaching Milton Hershey business principles, please
hersheystory.org/milton-hersh...
To discover who Milton S. Hershey was, visitors need to go no further than The Hershey Story. His history, life & legacy are presented in an interactive museum experience in Hershey, PA.
I think this is showing workers how much they are being exploited and oppressed by their employers. And how UNIONS would help to protect them.
100-to-1 would be plenty.
Wake up MAGA’S… I THINK ITS GOING TO TAKE THIS WHOLE WORKING CLASS COUNTRY TO WORK TOGETHER AGAINST CORPORATE GREED!! THAT INCLUDES POLITICAL GREED !!
In civilised countries, there are actually laws restricting that ratio.
No executive should make more than 100 times the pay of the lowest paid full time employee.
Starbucks prices are too high, the product no good, they force White kids to insult their own heritage when making less than, for a living wage.
Starbucks Corporation is more bigoted, racist and demeaning to Whites or RR turned down at the bar than that Florida DEI FEMA supervisor.
People where I grew up are, at most, 2 generations removed from relatives who grew up in company towns.
...and they are in love with a guy who would've owned a company town.
It is indefensible. There has to be a rebalancing as soon as the regime falls or there will be a major people based rebalancing of power and wealth.
Trickledown (Reagan)
What is the solution?
I'm still wanting to see mainstream media focus on American household income and finances at this time?
markletelladams.com/2025/08/10/h...
I am beginning to see the economic impact of of tariffs in the grocery store and stuff I buy from online websites like Amazon. Suddenly and almost overnight, I am seeing my cost of simple goods and…
25 Years Ago, In The Board Rooms Where This Was Being Started, I Asked, "Why?"....The Answer I Was Given Was , "Everyone Else Is Doing It"....
All CEOs:
Greedy amoral sociopaths, that's how.
Totally out of whack!
You can't.
clayjak.substack.com/p/the-fedsoc...
The truth is ugly, but it’s clear now. FedSoc isn’t a debating club. It’s not an intellectual movement. It’s a revenge machine. And it’s been eating the republic alive while we watched.
Does nobody study history? The uneasy truce between labor and management for the past 100 years-ish is on pretty shake ground with this whole NLRB being unconstitutional thing but the 5th. It'll be back to violence in the streets if this keeps up, and regular folks will be caught in the crossfire.
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No one can give a justifiable reason for this. They will just tell you that this is the way it is, even though 50 years ago it wasn't this way. And 50 yrs ago CEOs had a very comfortable living. Trickle Down has been voodoo economics for the working class, no doubt.
This is why we are here today! PURE GREED
Indefensible!
How much of the CEO pay was bonus, incentives, equity awards?
Easily. We have been sold that greed is virtuous and should be our primary goal.
Wouldn’t it make sense for every corporation to have a unionized workforce to PROTECT the workers and make the rich pigs pay their dues, and TAXES.
There is no defending the indefensible. These same corperate charlatans they give big $ to the fat orange felon to pass tax breaks that will give them MORE money that is taken directly from our pockets.
Eat the rich. I don't know who said that, but they're right.
CEO pay should have been directly tied to the corporations lowest paid workers wages a long, LONG time ago. Should have been set to a maximum of 100 X what the LOWEST paid employee makes per year. MAXIMUM. Including shares and bonuses and such.
Multi-Billion Dollar Marketing, Robert.
Creating jobs, all right.
Jobs to help keep us inline, asleep, or docile.
And the insane thing is that CEOs get paid regardless of how the company actually performs under the leadership. Tank the company? Here's a multi million dollar golden parachute! Heaven forbid CEOs suffer like the peasantry they employ.
Scott Bessent says tariff revenue (taxes paid by Americans) will go to pay down the national debt. Oddly, a big part of the debt and deficit is due to tax cuts for the wealthy, especially billionaires. Kinda makes a neat little circle. That’s a very elegant con. Newman and Redford would be proud.
Gut tax breaks or tariff relief from any company with a ratio higher than 10:1
They can't anymore!!!...That's why they constructed and fully support the Corporate takeover of the USA ..... using that undertaker DJ Trump. No, your true enemy America.....it's not just Trump...He's just the point of the spear...replaceable and expendable.....It's International Corporations.
CEOs will.
They defend it with saying "I don't fucking care as long as I'm gettin' PAID!".
The inequal distribution of wealth is one of the main causes for the rise of populists and extremists.
Clearest indictment of dribble down economics, I’ve seen in some time.
“We’re going to redistribute wealth ⬆️ so some of it dribbles back down.”
@premnsikka.bsky.social @bylinetimes.bsky.social How economists got paid for mouthing that nonsense, is beyond me.
#TuftonSt I’m looking at you.
There is no defense, but Ive heard all the excuses. Both from the actual 1% as well as from the temporarily embarrassed millionaires that simp for both the rich and the right wing.
Its consistently embarrassing, but only one group truly swallows the bullshit. And it ain't the group with the money.
