American CEOs Now Clock in at 361 Times the Pay of the Average Worker

The AFL-CIO is out with its Executive Paywatch, which finds that “In 2017, CEOs of S&P 500 Index companies received, on average, $13.94 million in total compensation.” By contrast, “production and nonsupervisory workers earned only $38,613, on average." That means a 361-to-one CEO-to-worker pay ratio. And yes, it's growing:

In 2017, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio was 361. In 2016, the ratio was 347. In 1990, it was 107. And in 1980, it was 42. This pay gap reflects widening income inequality in the country.

E. Hunter Harrison of the CSX Corporation was the top-earning CEO, with $151,147,286 in compensation in 2017. The CEO-to-average-worker pay ratios by company—a new feature this year since this is the first year companies have been required to report them—are astonishing. That tells us that too many companies aren't investing in their workers.

â—� Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a $15 minimum wage and paid family leave.

â—� The Chamber of Commerce's court.

â—� The not-so-subtle racism of Trump-era "welfare reform."

â—� Tesla says its factory is safer. But it left injuries off the books (and Elon Musk is REALLY unhappy that Reveal News is covering it):

What she and some of her colleagues found, they said, was a chaotic factory floor where style and speed trumped safety. Musk’s name often was invoked to justify shortcuts and shoot down concerns, they said.

Under fire for mounting injuries, Tesla recently touted a sharp drop in its injury rate for 2017, which it says came down to meet the auto industry average of about 6.2 injuries per 100 workers.

But things are not always as they seem at Tesla. An investigation by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting found that Tesla has failed to report some of its serious injuries on legally mandated reports, making the company’s injury numbers look better than they actually are.