America’s CEOs ‘rewarded like monarchs,’ new report shows

Chief Executive Officers at Wall Street’s S&P 500 took home an average of $18.9 million in total compensation in 2024 – a 7% pay raise from the previous year, according to a report released by the AFL-CIO. This increase means CEOs made 285 times the median, or midpoint, income by workers – up from the already appalling 268-to-1 shown in last year’s annual report.

The AFL-CIO’s “2025 Executive Paywatch Report” analyzes new data to quantify the economic inequality between America’s CEOs and the workers who make their profits for them.

“Corporate CEOs are raking in millions, and now they’ll get another kickback from President Trump’s tax cut gift and anti-worker agenda,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond. “Trump is paying for this handout to CEOs by cutting health care, food assistance and hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on government investments.”

The report says, “The average CEO took home a $1.24 million raise last year while working families struggled to make ends meet.”

Together, CEOs listed in “Executive Paywatch” will save $738 million in income tax cuts, thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The AFL-CIO says, this lost tax revenue alone could pay for:

* Medicaid health care for 81,028 working people.

* SNAP food assistance for 328,877 working people.

* School lunches for 925,508 students.

The labor federation’s statistics are based on corporations’ public filings.

“Corporate compensation filings are tedious reading, but they are a trove of information,” New York Times finance columnist Jeff Sommers wrote this summer. “That may be why they have never been uniformly popular in corner offices and why the Trump administration is beginning a process that could lead to the curtailment or demise of some of these disclosure requirements. In my view, that would be a shame. I would hate to lose access to any of the details being revealed by public corporations.”

Locally, a few prominent employers are instructive:

Caterpillar’s CEO-to-median worker pay ratio is 399-to-1; Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is 268-to-1; and Boyd Gaming (Par-A-Dice Casino) is 304-to-1.

For a slightly deeper dive, consider the Top 5 CEO pay by industry:

SECTOR                                        AVG. CEO PAY   AVG. WORKER PAY    RATIO

Arts- Entertainment-Recreation:    $35,159,894          $23,976                          1,924-to-1

Educational Services                      $25,545,004          $68,015                          618-to-1

Accommodation-Food Services     $19,756,720          $78,119                          380-to-1

Transportation-Warehousing          $16,331,574          $80,280                          315-to-1

Manufacturing                                $20,530,438          $89,848                          302-to-1

And consider the connections between President Trump and CEOs who benefit from his economic policies.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk personally donated $288 million to Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign, but his CEO pay, recently set at $29 billion is in the stratosphere compared to most CEOs. Obviously, it pales to the $159,917 media pay of Tesla workers.

These four CEOs or their companies all donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration:

* Palantir Technologies, whose CEO Alex Karp’s pay is 20 times his workers’ media pay;

* Google/Alphabet, whose CEO Sundar Pichai’s pay is 32 times his workers’ median pay;

* Amazon, whose CEO Jeff Bezos’s pay is 43 times his workers’ median pay; and

* Facebook/Meta,  whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s pay is 65 times his workers’ median pay.

 Elsewhere, Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Trump in the Oval Office and afterward pledged to invest $100 billion in U.S. manufacturing during his term. Cook’s pay is 650 times his workers’ median pay.

“Pay disparities of this magnitude reflect levels of income inequality that were considered repugnant 50 years ago,” Sommers commented. “The American social structure was flatter and CEO-to-worker pay ratios were lower then. Motivating executives is one thing. Rewarding them like absolute monarchs is another.”

 For the full report, go to-

https://aflcio.org/paywatch?link_id=4&can_id=d28a0e75022b91d73fc95bc86b686390&source=email-daily-brief-july-xx-2025-17&email_referrer=email_2822817&email_subject=daily-brief-july-23-2025&&

Unions improve communities and ALL workers, not just members

In high-union-density states, 2023 median household income was on average more than $12,000 higher than in low-union-density states. Between 1979–2024, median, or midpoint, wages increased more in states where unionization declined less.

In states with higher union densities, the share of people without any form of health insurance was 5.7%; this rate was 9% in states with lower union densities.

States with higher rates of unionization spend substantially more per pupil on education than low-union-density states ($22,777 per pupil vs. $15,568).

About 70% of states with the highest union density have enacted paid sick leave legislation, compared with just 11.8% of low-union-density states.

Since 2021, voter restriction laws passed in low-union-density states seven times as often (44) as in high-union-density states (6).

Note: EPI categorizes union density as the share of workers in a state who are members of a union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement, and averages the data across three years. So “2024” unionization rates are the average, by state, of unionization rates from 2022, 2023 and 2024. EPI uses 1979 as the baseline year because that years was the peak before the steep drop in unionization that began in the 1980s. EPI divided the 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia into three equally sized groups based on their current (2022–2024) level of union density. There are 17 states with the highest union density (with 13.4%–25.5% of workers covered); the next 17 states (including D.C.) are “medium-union-density states” (with 8.2%–13.1% of workers covered); and the remaining 17 are “low-union-density states” (with 3.0%–8.1% of workers covered).

However, unions don’t just improve workers’ paychecks. Indeed, rebuilding worker power by strengthening unions is not just good policy—it is a democratic imperative in the face of authoritarian backsliding.

 “Unions also have powerful effects on people’s lives outside of work,” say EPI report authors Celine McNicholas, Margaret Poydock, Heidi Shierholz and Hilary Wething. “They help foster solidarity, promote civic and political engagement, provide reliable information to working-class communities about how economic policies impact their lives, and serve as a counterweight to corporate power in our democracy. Throughout history, unions have been engines of resistance to entrenched and undemocratic power—mobilizing working people to challenge inequality, defend civil rights, and push back against authoritarianism in all its forms.

 “In the same way unions give workers a voice at work, with a direct impact on wages and working conditions, the data suggest that unions also give workers a voice in shaping their communities. They shape the social and political fabric of the communities they operate in, lifting standards for union and nonunion workers alike.

“High union density is consistently associated with a much broader set of positive spillover effects across multiple dimensions: from higher wages and better benefits; to more equitable tax systems; safer workplaces; stronger public services; and healthier, more inclusive democracies,” the report says. “Unions don’t just improve workers’ paychecks—they shape the social and political fabric of the communities they operate in, lifting standards for union and nonunion workers alike, while their political advocacy helps to drive an array of strongly positive outcomes, especially in states where unions represent a sizeable share of the workforce.”

EPI findings show seven key effects of unionization:

* Higher wages and decreased income inequality. On average, a worker covered by a union contract earns 12.8% more in wages than a peer in a nonunionized workplace in the same industry with a similar education, occupation and level of experience. But unions don’t just help union workers—they help all workers. Nonunion workers benefit too because unions effectively set broader standards, which nonunion employers must meet to attract and retain the workers they need. (See chart at bottom for the correlation between recent decades’ loss of union density nationwide and the rise of income inequality.)

* Smaller racial wage gaps. Unions have historically reduced wage gaps between Black and white workers. since World War II, Black workers were more likely to be in unions and received a larger wage premium for union membership. Now, Black workers represented by a union are paid 12.6% more than their nonunionized Black peers, and Hispanic workers represented by a union are paid 16.4% more than their nonunionized Hispanic peers.

* Higher wages for women. On average, the wages of women represented by a union are 9.8% higher than those of nonunionized women with comparable characteristics. Further, there is suggestive evidence that within workplaces, union bargaining reduces gender wage gaps.

* Increased government revenue and less need for safety net programs. Unionization has a range of positive economic impacts in addition to decreasing wage inequality and raising wages for historically disadvantaged groups. Unionized workers have more income and therefore pay more taxes. Also, unionized workers need fewer public benefits. Higher incomes let workers and their families be less dependent on government benefits.

* Greater access to employer-sponsored benefits including health insurance, retirement and paid leave. Union workers are far more likely than nonunion workers to be covered by employer-provided health insurance – more than 9 in 10 unionized workers have employer-sponsored health benefits (compared with just 71% of nonunion workers), and union employers contribute more to their employees’ health-care benefits. Furthermore, union employers are more likely to contribute more toward retirement plans than comparable nonunion employers. Union workers are also more likely to have paid sick days, vacation and holidays, more input into the number of hours they work, and more predictable schedules.

* Strengthened health and safety. Union contracts also require safety equipment and empower workers to report unsafe conditions without retaliation. So-called Right-To-Work (“for less”) legislation that weakens unions has been associated with a roughly 14% increase in the rate of occupational fatalities.

* Increased civic engagement and broader community benefits. Beyond wages, benefits and safety, recent scholarship shows the indirect effect unions have on people’s political and personal attitudes and on the broader community and economy as a whole. Union membership reduces white racial resentment, increases political advocacy, specifically related to worker empowerment and economic justice. Conversely, weakening unions significant long-term political and economic effects, such as lower voter turnout, lower organized labor contributions, less voter mobilization, fewer working-class candidates serving in state legislatures and Congress, and less pro-worker state policy.

Again, this August report – https://www.epi.org/publication/unions-arent-just-good-for-workers-they-also-benefit-communities-and-democracy/#full-report outlines a strong correlation between areas’ levels of union density and a range of measurements of economic, personal and democratic well-being. Unions give workers ways to influence our working conditions, which helps people shape their communities, leading to more equitable economic, social and democratic structures.

Peoria's Independent Steelworkers Alliance affiliates with United Steelworkers

In a landslide vote, members of the Independent Steelworkers Alliance in Bartonville on August 7 chose to join the United Steelworkers, becoming ISWA-USW Local 9614.

The members are optimistic about the move, said President Brad Wight Sr., who took office in June.

“It was getting to where we didn’t have the resources we thought we needed,” said Wight, who said after rejecting a proposed settlement with Liberty Steel and Wire, the independent steelworkers in April ratified a two-year extension, set to expire on May 3, 2027.

A meet-and-greet between the company and USW officials was scheduled for Sept. 11, said Wight (pictured).

The new Local will be part of USW District 7, which covers Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

 

 

State Labor Dept. busy enforcing labor laws, report shows

Every Labor Day, the Illinois Department of Labor issues an annual report summarizing the agency’s work – and the labor situation the data reflects.

On Sept. 3, the IDOL included dozens of actions, including administering the new Child Labor law and Equal Pay Act on Salary Transparency,  the never-ending protection of the Prevailing Wage Act, and working to ensure workers receive the overtime pay and paid leave to which they’re entitled.

“Last year, IDOL received nearly 9,000 complaints of violations of Illinois wage and hour laws and collected millions of dollars in back wages and penalties for workers,” said IDOL Director Jane Flanagan.

“At a time when federal labor enforcement has diminished and workers’ rights face new threats, this work has never been more vital,” she added.

Indeed, between Executive Orders from the White House and GOP majorities in both houses of Congress, cuts and layoffs to federal labor and safety programs, and a non-working National Labor Relations Board threaten working people and unions. Fortunately, Illinois state lawmakers help Gov. Pritzker ensure Illinois’ labor laws remain robust – and enforced.

Further, Illinois Congressional delegation supports organized labor, according to the AFL-CIO, whose most recent tally of Illinois’ federal lawmakers show a solid block on 10 key issues the labor federation advocated.

U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth earned 100% scores, and 13 of the 14 Democratic House Representatives also scored a 100%. Mike Quigley, from the 5^th District, received an 89%.

Of the 10 issues important to workers that the AFL-CIO tracked, 9 were opposed but passed with Republican votes, such as Illinois’ three GOP Reps. Darin LaHood, Mary Miller and Mike Bost – each of whom score a 0%.

In Springfield, Flanagan said she remained thankful and hopeful.

“I am filled with appreciation for Illinois’ working people and our many public, private, community, union and nonprofit partners whose feedback, input and collaboration make our work possible,” she said. “In Illinois we’re focused on not just enforcing existing workplace rights; we are also on the forefront of advancing them.”

 

 

Looking back at Labor Day in western Illinois

Hundreds of people were on the sidewalks, with kids scrambling from curbs for candy in Galesburg, which took a traditional approach, with a parade lasting about two hours to move down Main Street five blocks. However, the marching unionists and floats were preceded not only by a color guard and a virtual fleet of police and fire fighter vehicles, but six bagpipers and four drummers on the ground, and several biplanes repeatedly soaring overhead.

Area marching bands from Galesburg, Knoxville and ROWVA (with its fine version of “Here Comes the Sun”) were interspersed with the Lions Club, State Sen. Mike Halpin (D-36^th) and a host of union floats, trucks and marchers, including Plumbers and Plasterers, Letter Carriers and Teamsters, AFSCME and Iron Workers, Electrical Workers and Carpenters, plus Operators, Laborers and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees.

In Macomb, union members and supporters took another approach, holding a noon-time rally, which spilled over from Chandler Park to line the block, with dozens of demonstrators protesting President Trump. Below: Thomas and Lynnia Oatman of Lewistown drove to Macomb from Fulton County to lend their voices to a Labor Day rally.

 

 

 

 

Some Peoria community action agency services to go on despite state cuts

Given rising costs for food and utilities, it’s important that the Peoria Citizens Committee for Economic Opportunity (PCCEO) is continuing its food pantry, scheduled to open Sept. 3 at the 711 McBean Street complex, despite losing about $3 million in grants from the State of Illinois.

Its Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) also will continue, although it will be administered on an emergency basis for one year by the Tazwood CAA, an action agency operating as Tazwood Community Services, with offices in Pekin and Bloomington.

On Aug. 8, PCCEO received communication from David Wortman, Deputy Director of Community Assistance with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) indicating DCEO's termination of PCCEO's grants for LIHEAP ($2.27 million) and Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) ($679k).

Wortman said PCCEO hadn’t met the deadline for its 2023 audit, due Sept. 30, 2024, and was in default status.

The state didn’t blame PCCEO’s current leadership, including CEO Denise Moore and CFO Kelly Stewart.

Instead, “DCEO's decision to terminate PCCEO's LIHEAP and CSBG grants is the result of several years of persistent organizational and fiscal instability, including high turnover among both senior leadership and Board members.”

Moore, a a former Peoria City Council member and founder and CEO of the Minority Business Development Center in Peoria, became CEO of PCCEO just months ago. Formed in 1966 to help low-income Peorians with food assistance, energy bills, child care and housing needs, PCCEO’s previous leaders included Mike Banks and McFarland Bragg (who left in 1992 and 2002, respectively).

Upon the notice from the states, Moore said she “called a meeting with PCCEO staff, informing them of DCEO's plans to wind down the agency's grant portfolio. Staff is taking this very hard and I'm hopeful the community will rally around these dedicated workers. They have done nothing wrong and have worked diligently to serve our community.”

A high-profile service, PCCEO’s food pantry “will move on to address food insecurity,” said program manager Wayne Cannon. “The need continues. We have relationships with area food banks and other organizations, like OSF. We provide emergency food boxes to people discharged from the hospital and needing help while they’re recovering.”

Overall,

* Tazwood is set to provide qualifying Peorians with Home Energy Assistance starting next month through August of 2025;

* Community Services Block Grants under PCCEO will continue to provide services until this Dec. 31;

* PCCEO’s buildings at McBean, Webster school, the Affordable Housing Programs and Head Start will continue (although Head Start could be pulled next year, Moore said); and

* the state’s DECO will fund PCCEO’s administration and “grant closeout” of LIHEAP and CSBG.

ICE active in downstate Illinois, and it could increase

Three weeks after the White House gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a goal of 3,000 detentions per day, masked agents without warrants made more than 1,000 arrests in the agency’s Chicago Area of Responsibility, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Missouri and Kansas, according to the independent Deportation Data Project.

Some arrests have occurred in Central Illinois, according to the Immigration Project, a Bloomington-based group providing legal services and support for immigrants.

“We have direct and indirect reports of immigration enforcement in some of our service areas. For example, in Champaign, we heard of an arrest of two people outside the Champaign courthouse and the arrest of factory workers on their way to work,” the advocacy group said in a prepared statement. “There have also been reports in Kankakee, Bloomington, [and] Springfield among others. Immigration enforcement is likely happening everywhere in the country. Some are more reported than others.”

Indeed, the government’s Online Detainee Locator System has few details, such as Emmanuel Marroquin-Jiminez being arrested outside the McLean County courthouse in June after appearing there on charges unrelated to his status.

The Community Word contacted two Peoria law firms who say they work on immigration issues, and one declined to comment and the other spoke on the condition no name be used because of concern about retaliation.

“I think there’s some bad and some good in the enforcement,” he said. “I really wish the agents would separate violent criminals from everyone else. Right now, they’re sweeping up everybody.”

Laurie Bergner, McLean County League of Women Voters Community Education director, said ICE agents now seem to be focusing on bigger population centers.

“I'm sure they concentrate on larger cities, which have more immigrants and would be easier to pick up and deport to meet their quota,” she said. “I would guess they will focus on farm workers and meat-packing plants, etc. in rural areas – anywhere they think they will find groups of immigrants.”

In its statement, the Immigration Project said no area is being spared.

“Immigration enforcement is currently happening even in small-sized cities, and considering the fact that the agency is going to receive more funding as stipulated under the One Big Beautiful Bill passed on July 4, for recruitment, expansion of detention spaces, etc., it is very likely that their current attention or more of it may be drawn to workers in these sectors or in mid-sized cities.”