Market Watch – by Sue ChangWhile the average American is living from paycheck to paycheck, the executives in the C-suite are taking home millions in wages and compensation, highlighting the widening income disparity in the U.S.
The average pay of chief executive officers working for the largest 3,000 companies in the U.S. climbed to $6.4 million in 2014 from $5.5 million in the previous year while the median CEO pay jumped 12.7% on the strength of higher pensions, according to data from ISS Corporate Solutions.
“These numbers provide a likely forecast for CEO pay trends and numbers we’ll see over the course of 2015 U.S. annual meeting season,” said John Roe, head of advisory with ISS.
Wages and salaries rose around 3% for most Americans workers in 2014, according to recent data.
In 2013, the latest year for which the Social Security Administration posted data for, average wages in America rose a mere 1.3% to $43,041 from $42.498 in 2012—meaning an average worker must work roughly 127.7 years to make the same kind of money that a CEO does.
By geography, CEOs in the Connecticut area saw the largest median pay increase at 38.7% compared with Denver-area CEOs who got a 2.3% hike.
CEOs in the San Francisco Bay Area got a 19.5% raise, followed by CEOs in the Washington, D.C. area at 15.4%. Ninety-eight New York-based corporations gave their CEOs a median pay raise of 12.3%, based on filings submitted.
The data, while not surprising, underscores the reality of how one of the richest countries in the world trails other nations in wealth distribution. The U.S.’s Gini coefficient—often used to measure income equality—was 41.1 in 2011, behind countries like Madagascar and Greece. Zero reflects perfect equality, and 100 represents perfect inequality.
Just a mile marker on the road to serfdom.
$6.4 million? More like $64 million + a year.
But that would be 1270 years would it not.
And most of the U.S. Have and average wage of under $30k a year.
Maybe If I use comnie core math it would only be 127 years
“While the average American is living from paycheck to paycheck,…”
Average American?
That must include all Americans living on welfare paychecks, as most of us are out of jobs at this point.
It damn sure can’t include all the illegal invaders from south of the border that took jobs away from REAL Americans.
http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/04/15/winners-of-ceo-jackpot-top-12-paid-654m/