Study: U.S. CEOs earn 312 times more than average workers do

distraff said:

CEOs have a large say in what their salary and annual increases will be and not surprisingly give themselves a lot of raises. They are in business for their own wealth and benefit so obviously they will pay themselves as much as they can. Worker salary is an expense and they will try to minimize worker salaries as much as possible to increase their own wealth and make their business more competitive and increase profits.

Employers are still unwilling to give their workers substantial raises even with the current lack of labor, maybe because they are very focused on reducing costs and still have a recession mindset. Or they figure that unemployment is going to go up again and they will get more job seekers in a few years. They might also be considering that they can outsource production to cheaper countries or automate production and replace human jobs with machines. There is also a lack of worker unions so employers have even less incentive to pay their workers fairly from new profits.

So much of the economy is now tied into the financial markets and the rich now invest most of their money in the stock market while the middle class can't do this as much as the rich can. So when the economy grows and much of this growth goes to the stock market, it is mostly the rich who benefit.

Click to expand...

AliHajiSheik said:

How exactly do CEO’s pay themselves? Why don’t they pay themselves more then?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

AliHajiSheik said:

How exactly do CEO’s pay themselves? Why don’t they pay themselves more then?

Click to expand...

TU Curmudgeon said:

That is, indeed, "how things go".

The "Top 1%" owns about 40% of America's wealth.

The "Middle 9%" owns about 20% of America's wealth.

The "Bottom 90%" owns just slightly under 40% of America's wealth.

The stuff that the "Bottom 90%" owns is to fragmented and widely scattered to be worth pursuing by the "Top 1%" - but the stuff that the "Middle 9%" owns isn't. That means that the inevitable result is for those in the (current) "Middle 9%" to fall out of that range and into the range occupied by the (current) "Bottom 90%".

Eventually you reach the situation where the "Top 1%" owns 60% and the "Bottom 99%" owns 40%.

When you reach that situation there is only one outcome - the percentage owned by the "Top 1%" grows and the percentage owned by the "Bottom 99%" shrinks.

This shrinkage continues until the is a sudden boom in the market for "Rope & Lamp-post Inc." franchises.

Of course, by that time the REALLY smart members of the "Top 1%" have found "alternative accommodation" elsewhere (and so has their money).

Click to expand...

TU Curmudgeon said:

From United Press International

Study: U.S. CEOs earn 312 times more than average workers do
​

Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Chief executive officers at the United States' 350 largest companies earned substantially more last year than did average employees, an economic analysis showed Friday.

CEOs have always made more than typical workers, but the study showed the gap is increasing.

The non-governmental Economic Policy Institute said the average CEO salary was $18.9 million in 2017, an 18 percent increase over 2016. In that span, employees' wages rose just 0.3 percent.

The payout for executives included salary, bonuses, restricted stock grants, long-term incentive payouts and stock options.

COMMENT:-

To put that in perspective, based on the number of "working days" in a year, those CEOs earn as much in one day as the average worker earns in 8.371 years.

PS - Did you get your 18% raise last year?
​

Click to expand...

apdst said:

You're from Canada. Why are you so worried about The United States?

Click to expand...

Rogue Valley said:

The Board of Governors (who were recommended by the CEO) vote on officer salary, lucrative stock options, company retirement contributions, personal use of the corporate jet, bodyguards, limo and driver, CC memberships, money earmarked for charity, housing options, cash flex benefits (pocket money), tax gross-ups (taxes paid), company credit/tollway cards, etc.

Click to expand...

TU Curmudgeon said:

From United Press International

Study: U.S. CEOs earn 312 times more than average workers do
​

Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Chief executive officers at the United States' 350 largest companies earned substantially more last year than did average employees, an economic analysis showed Friday.

CEOs have always made more than typical workers, but the study showed the gap is increasing.

The non-governmental Economic Policy Institute said the average CEO salary was $18.9 million in 2017, an 18 percent increase over 2016. In that span, employees' wages rose just 0.3 percent.

The payout for executives included salary, bonuses, restricted stock grants, long-term incentive payouts and stock options.

COMMENT:-

To put that in perspective, based on the number of "working days" in a year, those CEOs earn as much in one day as the average worker earns in 8.371 years.

PS - Did you get your 18% raise last year?
​

Click to expand...

Rogue Valley said:

The Board of Governors (who were recommended by the CEO) vote on officer salary, lucrative stock options, company retirement contributions, personal use of the corporate jet, bodyguards, limo and driver, CC memberships, money earmarked for charity, housing options, cash flex benefits (pocket money), tax gross-ups (taxes paid), company credit/tollway cards, etc.

Click to expand...

distraff said:

Part of it is that CEOs pay themselves with stock options so when the company does better and the stock goes up they get the equivalent of automatic pay increases. In the meantime they are keeping worker salary flat. Its the people at the top who decide the CEO's pay packages and since they are all in the same club its a lot easier for people at the top to get increases than workers at the bottom.

Click to expand...

AliHajiSheik said:

Which is it, the CEO pays them self or the people “at the top” decide pay packages?

CEO’s don’t last long when they don’t perform.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

TU Curmudgeon said:

From United Press International

Study: U.S. CEOs earn 312 times more than average workers do
​

Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Chief executive officers at the United States' 350 largest companies earned substantially more last year than did average employees, an economic analysis showed Friday.

CEOs have always made more than typical workers, but the study showed the gap is increasing.

The non-governmental Economic Policy Institute said the average CEO salary was $18.9 million in 2017, an 18 percent increase over 2016. In that span, employees' wages rose just 0.3 percent.

The payout for executives included salary, bonuses, restricted stock grants, long-term incentive payouts and stock options.

COMMENT:-

To put that in perspective, based on the number of "working days" in a year, those CEOs earn as much in one day as the average worker earns in 8.371 years.

PS - Did you get your 18% raise last year?
​

Click to expand...

Captain Adverse said:

Well...if the stockholders and the Board of Directors who hired him think the contract was worth it I guess that's they way things go.

Isn't that what corporations were set up for? Shared but limited risk of investment capital?

If he sucks, he gets fired (of course often with a golden parachute) and someone else is offered the big bucks to push profits.

Nowhere in such arrangements do we ever see any word about "and don't forget the workers and their 'fair share'" of the profits. :shrug:

I agree it seems odd, but what do you expect when the money comes from people who are only interested in maximizing their own investment returns?

Click to expand...

Bullseye said:

I have long advocated for a employee stock option plan where the employees have the option to purchase shares of the company so they can share in the prosperity of the company.

Click to expand...

TU Curmudgeon said:

That is, indeed, "how things go".

The "Top 1%" owns about 40% of America's wealth.

The "Middle 9%" owns about 20% of America's wealth.

The "Bottom 90%" owns just slightly under 40% of America's wealth.

The stuff that the "Bottom 90%" owns is to fragmented and widely scattered to be worth pursuing by the "Top 1%" - but the stuff that the "Middle 9%" owns isn't. That means that the inevitable result is for those in the (current) "Middle 9%" to fall out of that range and into the range occupied by the (current) "Bottom 90%".

Eventually you reach the situation where the "Top 1%" owns 60% and the "Bottom 99%" owns 40%.

When you reach that situation there is only one outcome - the percentage owned by the "Top 1%" grows and the percentage owned by the "Bottom 99%" shrinks.

This shrinkage continues until the is a sudden boom in the market for "Rope & Lamp-post Inc." franchises.

Of course, by that time the REALLY smart members of the "Top 1%" have found "alternative accommodation" elsewhere (and so has their money).

Click to expand...

Polar Bum said:

Many corporations already offer employee stock option plans.

Click to expand...

TU Curmudgeon said:

Assuming full-time, 40 hour weeks, no overtime, and $11.00 per hour vs. $2,100,000 (the [2017] average of all NFL salaries) per year it's around 1 :: 91.783.

Click to expand...

TU Curmudgeon said:

You can work out the actual number for yourself HERE, but I'm too lazy to.

However, averaging just the highest and lowest gives $12,589,000. That means that the ratio is in the neighbourhood of 1 :: 550.217

Click to expand...

distraff said:

Different companies have different payment policies on how they decide CEO pay. In general there is a system where executives at the top decide the pay for each other but individual companies are different. For most companies the board of directors or another board decides CEO pay, but the problem is that they often have to report to the CEO so there is a lot of conflict of interest here. Overall, half of CEOs got 10% raises or more despite already earning 312 times as much as workers. If you were one of the people running a company why wouldn't you give yourself generous raises and salary? You are in business for your own profit not your employees. Businesses are built to benefit people at the top more than those at the bottom because they are made and run by people at the top.
https://www.fastcompany.com/40547536/did-you-get-a-raise-in-2017-these-superrich-ceos-sure-did
Who decides how much a CEO makes? - Business - Answer Desk | NBC News

Click to expand...

TU Curmudgeon said:

Although it is a bit of an over generalization, you wouldn't be completely off the mark to say that most revolutions result in the "We Have It Made"s being replaced by the "We Almost Have It Made"s and the actual change in the lives of the "We Are At The Bottom Of The Heap"s is fairly insubstantial. (The "Communist Revolution" is Russia is no exception, nor is the American Revolution.)

Click to expand...

What if...? said:

It is annoying that the original Americans brought the landlord model here when its that model they left Europe to get away from.

So they really just wanted to be landlords themselves.

Click to expand...

what if said:

Here at least you could just walk away until you got to where no other Europeans were and build a life free of landlords.

But those days have passed.

And now sleep itself is a privelege that must be paid for, if you don't want to break the law.

Click to expand...

TU Curmudgeon said:

Interesting graphs and quite in keeping with the findings set out in Robert J. Gordon's "The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War" - Princeton University Press (Jan. 12 2016) [ISBN-10: 0691147728 / ISBN-13: 978-0691147727] where are (to REALLY over simplify) "The US economy started to go to pot in the middle 1970s and has been going downhill ever since then (even though it keeps putting new and better chrome on the Yugo).".

Click to expand...

distraff said:

CEOs have a large say in what their salary and annual increases will be and not surprisingly give themselves a lot of raises. They are in business for their own wealth and benefit so obviously they will pay themselves as much as they can. Worker salary is an expense and they will try to minimize worker salaries as much as possible to increase their own wealth and make their business more competitive and increase profits.

Employers are still unwilling to give their workers substantial raises even with the current lack of labor, maybe because they are very focused on reducing costs and still have a recession mindset. Or they figure that unemployment is going to go up again and they will get more job seekers in a few years. They might also be considering that they can outsource production to cheaper countries or automate production and replace human jobs with machines. There is also a lack of worker unions so employers have even less incentive to pay their workers fairly from new profits.

So much of the economy is now tied into the financial markets and the rich now invest most of their money in the stock market while the middle class can't do this as much as the rich can. So when the economy grows and much of this growth goes to the stock market, it is mostly the rich who benefit.

Click to expand...

distraff said:

CEOs have a large say in what their salary and annual increases will be and not surprisingly give themselves a lot of raises. They are in business for their own wealth and benefit so obviously they will pay themselves as much as they can. Worker salary is an expense and they will try to minimize worker salaries as much as possible to increase their own wealth and make their business more competitive and increase profits.

Click to expand...

distaff said:

Employers are still unwilling to give their workers substantial raises even with the current lack of labor, maybe because they are very focused on reducing costs and still have a recession mindset. Or they figure that unemployment is going to go up again and they will get more job seekers in a few years. They might also be considering that they can outsource production to cheaper countries or automate production and replace human jobs with machines. There is also a lack of worker unions so employers have even less incentive to pay their workers fairly from new profits

Click to expand...

Bullseye said:

I have long advocated for a employee stock option plan where the employees have the option to purchase shares of the company so they can share in the prosperity of the company.

Click to expand...