Since 1978, CEO pay has grown 1,007.5% by one measure and a mere 940.3% by another measure, the Economic Policy Institute reports. Average workers? Their pay has gone up just 11.9%. That’s not all, either. The increase in CEO pay has dramatically outstripped the increase for other very high earners, which is positively modest at 339.2%.
The numbers start to seem a little more manageable if you drill down to more recent years, but the inequality is still striking:
CEO compensation has grown 52.6% in the recovery since 2009 using the options-exercised measure and 29.4% using the options-granted measure. In contrast, the typical workers in these large firms saw their annual compensation grow by just 5.3% over the recovery and actually fall by 0.2% between 2017 and 2018.
EPI also finds in the data an indication that no, CEOs aren’t magical unicorns who are worth all that money on their own unique merit: “CEOs of large firms earned 5.4 times that of the average top 0.1% earner in 2017, up from 4.4 times in 2007. This is yet another indicator that CEO pay is more likely based on CEOs’ power to set their own pay, not on a market for talent.”
● Mediation talks break down between U.S. women's team and U.S. soccer.
● The best comic strip thanks cat for unions.
● The American workplace still won't accommodate pregnant workers, writes Bryce Covert:
All pregnant workers will need at least some time away from work for prenatal doctor appointments. Many others experience complications that require emergency medical care. But these needs are often met with a penalty. “Pregnant women who have gone for just a day or two to the hospital come back to find out that they lost their jobs,” said Dina Bakst, a copresident of A Better Balance, an organization that promotes better leave policies. “They lose their health insurance, lose their jobs, end up sleeping on somebody’s couch.”
● Speaking of which, couple's suit over parental leave is new challenge to big law firm, writes Noam Scheiber.
● Half of all people living in poverty in Cleveland are working, report finds.
● Labor Notes offers advice for union stewards defending their immigrant sisters and brothers: How to respond if a member's work authorization is challenged.
● The answer to burnout at work isn't "self care"—it's unionizing.
● What Uber and the Koch brothers have in common: A plan to destroy public transit.
In documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Uber’s executives claim to see a “massive market opportunity” in the estimated 4.4 trillion miles traveled each year by people using public transit across 175 countries. The company continues to heavily subsidize per-ride costs to inflate its value to investors and undercut existing options, despite bleeding billions of dollars. “Uber is effectively a middleman for a money transfer from venture-capital (VC) firms to consumers,” writes James P. Sutton in National Review. Simply put, effectively supplanting the taxi industry wasn’t enough: Uber plans on undercutting public transit to finally turn a profit.
For their part, the Koch brothers are funneling money to their political action committee (PAC), Americans for Prosperity, to kill proposed public transit projects nationwide. Last year, they led the charge in stopping a popular $5.4 billion transit plan in Nashville, Tennessee, that had even been backed by a coalition of the city’s business community. The Kochs have funded similar anti-public transit efforts in Arkansas, Arizona, Michigan, Utah and other states.
● Teachers fighting for public schools were key to the uprising in Puerto Rico.
