The lowest-paid workers saw their CEOs make 670 times their salaries last year — all while inflation cancelled out their raises

• A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies look at how much CEOs and workers make.
• Across the 300 low-paying firms IPS analyzed, CEOs make 670 times more than their workers.

Over the last year, the labor market has seen many new pandemic-era developments: Skyrocketing wages, labor shortages, and the Great Resignation.

One trend has gotten more extreme: America's lowest-paying firms for workers provide massive paychecks to their CEOs. At the same time, everyday costs for workers got a whole lot more expensive.

According to a new report from the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies, the gap between CEO and median worker pay stretched even further in 2021. Top executives made 670 times more than their workers at the lowest-paying companies — a widening gap from 2020, when they made 604 times more. In fact, at 49 of the 300 companies IPS looked at, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio was over 1,000-to-1.

The following table shows the companies with the highest CEO-worker pay ratios among the 300 companies in the report:

High CEO pay isn't a new phenomenon. A report from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that, in 2020, CEOS made 351 times more than the typical worker. From 1978 to 2020, according to EPI, CEO compensation has grown 1,322%. At the same time, the typical worker's pay rose by just 18% during that time. According to the IPS report, that gap is even starker for the world's lowest earners and their CEOs.

It also comes as pay raises are wiped out by even-faster rising prices. For 106 of the firms that IPS analyzed, the median pay for workers did not keep up with 2021 inflation. In fact, 69 of the firms saw their typical nominal worker pay drop.

The report only tracks inflation in 2021, which grew 4.7% on average. Prices have only gotten higher in 2022, with just a handful of workers seeing their wages keep pace with skyrocketing costs.

Some politicians have taken aim at what they think is "excessive" CEO compensation. In 2021, Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — among other progressives — introduced the "Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act," aimed at companies that make at least $100 million. The legislation would impose an additional corporate tax on companies where CEOs make at least 50 times more than their median worker's pay. Companies where CEOs make 500 times more than their typical worker — like the ones IPS focused on — would owe an additional 5% in corporate tax.

"CEOs are being paid hundreds of times more than their average worker, whose wages haven't changed in years," Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts who co-sponsored the legislation, said in a press release at the time. "It is a national disgrace."