CEO pay

An organization called the Economic Policy Institute regularly issues news releases about the state of the American economy. If we need simple label to describe the EPI, let’s use “labor friendly.”

Here are two news releases issued by the EPI this week, with the most recent one first:

“Today’s snapshot, by Economic Policy Institute President Lawrence Mishel, shows that today’s CEO-to-worker compensation ratio (262:1) is the second-highest level ever recorded. The typical worker’s compensation averaged just under $42,000 for the year, while the average CEO reaped almost $11 million. In fact, the average CEO is paid in just one day of work about what the average worker has to put in a full year (260 work days) to earn.”

“ Because of congressional inaction, the inflation-adjusted dollar value of the minimum wage has reached its lowest level since 1955, according to a new joint report from the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. What’s more, the value of the minimum wage has also fallen to a new low compared to average workers’ pay: it now stands at just 31% of the average hourly wage of nonsupervisory workers. Since September 1997, when the last raise took effect, the minimum wage has lost 25% of its value to inflation.
“The report’s authors Jared Bernstein (EPI) and Isaac Shapiro (CBPP) warn that another negative landmark is on the horizon, as well. Unless Congress acts soon we will, before the year is out, surpass the record for the longest period without an increase.”

The part about the minimum wage doesn’t anger me as much as it once did. The part about CEO compensation does. I feel sorry for someone who makes only $42,000 a day. I mean, it would take such a person nearly a week to earn what Britney Spears spends on one vacation.