Chief executives of S&P 500 companies in the US earnt on average US$ 18.3 million more than the median worker—who took home $23,968, in 2021 according to an American labour union. This represents a staggering 324 times pay difference and is a higher ratio than it was in 2020.
According to the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), the average gap between CEO and median worker pay rose to 670-to-1 meaning that for every $1 given to the median worker in compensation, the CEO received $670. This was up from 604-to-1 in 2020. Astoundingly, 49 companies had ratios above 1000-to-1. Yet worker compensation failed to keep pace with the level of inflation.
Of those C-level in S&P 500 companies, Amazon CEO, Andy Jessy’s total compensation amounted to US$ 212.7 million last year which is an eye watering 6,474 times that of the company’s median worker and was the highest CEO-to-worker ratio out of all the S&P companies.
The announcement keeps the spotlight on executive level compensation which has long outpaced inflation and average worker pay and has resulted in an increase in inequality across the globe. Workers in the US are growing increasingly frustrated at the level in which executives are rewarded with 87% of the population viewing it as a problem.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
