CEOs at big US companies make 276 times as much as the average worker
Inequality continues to be a big problem in America, and one statistic that reflects this is the enormous disparity between pay for CEOs and workers at large companies.
According to a report published earlier this summer by Lawrence Mishel and Jessica Schieder of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the average CEO of one of the largest 350 companies in the US by sales earns about 276 times what the average worker at his or her company makes.
The EPI researchers noted that this was down from 302 times the average worker's pay in 2014, largely because CEOs tend to receive a large amount of their compensation in the form of stock and options. Also, 2015 saw a pretty flat stock market overall.
Still, Mishel and Schieder observed that this ratio is "light years beyond the 20-to-1 ratio in 1965." They also noted that while CEO compensation grew by about 940% between 1978 and 2015 after adjusting for inflation, the typical worker's pay grew just 10% over that time.
For more, check out the full EPI report here.
