Americans see CEO-worker pay gap as problem, more and more

 The issue about the gap between everyday workers’ wages and CEO pay may not be new.

But what IS new is that more Americans see this as a problem.

The separation is growing, too.

Overall workers’ pay has gone up 11% since 2019, but CEO pay is up 31% over the same time, according to JUST Capital, a nonprofit that judges public corporations based on management, labor and other policies.

“People, regardless of ideology, see that CEO pay is too high,” JUST capital chief strategy officer Alison Omens told Forbes magazine.

Public opinion that the gap between the corporate elite and the rest of us is a problem is almost 90%, according to some research.

The trend hasn’t slowed in the pandemic years. In 2020, the average CEO-to-worker ratio – conparing CEOs’ pay to the median (midpoint) of companies’ worker wages –was 235 to 1. That’s up from 212 to 1 in 2017, JUST Capital showed, adding that the worst disparities are in low-wage industries such as leisure and hospitality, restaurants and health care.

Meanwhile, only about one-third of regular employees at 22 companies that employ some 7 million frontline workers make a living wage, according to a Brookings Institution study out this spring

(Stockholders of those 22 companies, benefiting from the production of others, make five times more than the workers there.)

Earlier this year, the public-opinion research firm SSRS reported significant findings about how ordinary Americans view the gap.

* 87% say the growing gap between CEO pay and worker pay is a problem.

* Between 73% and 79% (depending on respondents’ familiarity with the data) believe most CEOs of the largest U.S. corporations are paid too much  

* 72% say companies should have CEO compensation caps, regardless of performance.

* 85% agree that one way America’s largest companies can meaningfully act to reduce income inequality is by raising ththeir workers’ pay to a living wage.

* 80% say popular support for labor unions and the recent wave of strikes are trying to address the fact that large corporations have undervalued workers for too long.

“Pay levels are an indicator for people of how a CEO is treated versus how workers are treated in a company,” Omens said.

The problem isn’t “out there,” as this snapshot from the AFL-CIO’s most recent “Executive Paywatch” report shows. Ten Illinois-based corporations stand out for the CEO/worker pay gap:

Company                               CEO                           CEO pay (2020)         CEO-to-worker ratio

Motorola Solutions, Inc.         Gregory Brown           $23,046,559                286 to 1

Archer-Daniels-Midland         Juan Luciano               $21,994,433                338 to 1

The Allstate Corporation        Thomas Wilson           $21,126,386                206 to 1

The Boeing Company             David Calhoun            $21,074,052                158 to 1

Walgreens Boots Alliance      Stefano Pessina           $17,483,187                524 to 1

Mondelez International           Dirk de Put                  $16,842,693                544 to 1

Deere & Company                  John May                    $15,588,384                220 to 1

Caterpillar Inc.                        Donald Umpleby III   $13,676,551                274 to 1

McDonald's Corporation        Chris Kempczinski     $10,847,032                1,189 to 1

United Airlines Holdings        J. Kirby                       $8,891,854                  163 to 1