CEOs Make 324 Times the Pay of Median Workers, Union Says CEOs are taking home a lot of cash and outpacing worker pay, even more than in 2020, per the AFL-CIO.
By Gabrielle Bienasz •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
CEOs of the largest companies in the U.S. make a lot of money – and it's still going up, according to one report.
On Monday, the AFL-CIO, one of the most prominent unions in the U.S., released its annual report on CEO pay, Reuters reported.
The results weren't exactly great news for workers: In 2021, on average, CEOs made $18.3 million, and their pay was 324 times what a median worker at their company makes.
In 2020, that ratio was 299, per The Hill.
The AFL-CIO noted Andy Jassy of Amazon — who made $212.7 million, 6,474 times a median Amazon worker — as the largest ratio on the list.
An Amazon spokesperson told Entrepreneur the pay is vested over 10 years. "What this equates to from an annual compensation perspective is competitive with that of CEOs at other large companies," it added.
Economic inequality has increased steadily since the 1970s, according to the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities. During the pandemic, the global gap grew even wider, per the World Bank.
Some say CEO pay dwarfing worker pay is to blame. Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, called it the "single most dramatic driver of our country's economic divide."
Inflation also diminished wage growth for workers in the last year, CNBC reported.
