E-News Special Labor Day Issue on CEO Pay

A Special Dispatch to Help You Fight for a Fair Economy

Are U.S. CEOs Worth Their Cost?

As we celebrate the first minimum wage increase in 10 years, our annual “Executive Excess” report (PDF, 1MB) says that CEO pay is currently 364 times average worker pay. And CEOs got a 45% increase during the past 10 years, while average workers got only a 7% increase during that time!

With press coverage for the report including CNN, CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Boston Globe and USA Today, we’ve started a vital discussion.

Help us move it along by forwarding this email to your friends and family and talking it up with the people you see this week.

The report (which we co-published with the Institute for Policy Studies) shows that top U.S. CEOs are paid about 200 times more than other leaders in our society – and three times as much as CEOs in Europe at larger companies. Clearly their obscene pay packages contribute to the severe inequality and corporate dominance in our society today.

We believe that the “market” for CEO pay is badly broken and needs intervention to set it right. But that won’t happen until enough of us put pressure on leaders in Washington and in board rooms around the country.

Download the complete report (PDF, 1 MB).

Read the press release.

Read the USA Today article “Cash of the titans: Criticism of pay for fund execs grows.”

Read Barbara Ehrenreich’s tongue-in-cheek column “It’s Not Easy Being Ultra-Rich.”

Please take a look at the report – and at least read the two-page executive summary in the front. Pass the info along and talk it up this week. With your help, we can turn this part of our economy toward a more equitable course.