Wednesday, April 16, 2014

CEOs keep on getting richer

 SOYMB  keeps saying it - the rich get  richer while you get poorer

In new data certain to fuel the growing public debate over economic inequality, a survey released Tuesday by the biggest U.S. trade-union federation found that the CEOs of top U.S. corporations were paid 331 times more money than the average U.S. worker in 2013. According to the AFL-CIO’s 2014 Executive PayWatch database, U.S. CEOs of 350 companies made an average of $11.7 million last year compared to the average worker who earned $35,293. The 331 to 1 ratio between the income of the 350 corporate CEOs in the Pay Watch survey and average workers is generally consistent with the pay gap that has prevailed over the past decade.

The same CEOs averaged an income 774 times greater than U.S. workers who earned the federal hourly minimum wage of $7.25 in 2013, or just over $15,000 a year, according to the database.

A separate survey of the top 100 U.S. corporations released by the New York Times Sunday found that the media compensation of CEOs of those companies last year was yet higher — $13.9 million. That survey, the Equilar 100 CEO Pay Study, found that those CEOs took home a combined $1.5 billion in 2013, slightly higher than their haul the previous year.

As in past years, the biggest earner was Lawrence Ellison, CEO of Oracle, who landed $78.4 million in a combination of cash, stocks, and options.

“Consider that the retirement benefits of the CEO of Yum Brands, which owns KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, has benefits of over $232 million in his company retirement fund, all of which is tax deferred,” said Sarah Anderson, at the Institute for Policy Studies . “It’s quite obscene when you know it’s a corporation that relies on very low-paid labour.”

http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/04/ceos-big-u-s-companies-paid-331-times-average-worker/

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