Analysis Shows Top US CEOs Made 254 Times More Than Median Workers in 2021

A report released on Monday stated that CEOs of some of the country’s major corporations made 254 times more than their median employees in 2021, as executive bonuses and stock awards increased remarkably.

According to the most recent edition of the Equilar 100, an annual analysis that examines executive pay at large U.S. corporations, median overall CEO compensation surged to $20 million in 2021, up roughly 31% from 2020.

“Increases were seen across all pay components,” suggests the analysis, which takes into account the total compensation and CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio of the top 100 U.S. companies in terms of revenue. The list of the top companies includes Apple, Microsoft, Raytheon, and Intel.

The CEO of Intel, Pat Gelsinger, led the Equilar 100 list with $177.9 million in total compensation in 2021. He was followed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, who earned $98.7 million last year, marking a 569% increase from 2020.

The analysis maintained that while median salary and median perks increased exponentially, the most significant jumps were noticed in the form of cash bonuses and stock awards. “The median value of stock awards increased by 22.7% in 2021, from $8.6 million to $10.5 million. Meanwhile, cash bonuses increased by 46.4% in 2021, from $2.8 million to $4.2 million,” the analysis adds.

Typical employees continued to suffer in 2021, despite unprecedented corporate profits and skyrocketing CEO pay, as the coronavirus spread and increasing prices of food, housing, and other basic needs chipped away at their small wage gains. The latest Equilar analysis, according to Sarah Anderson, director of the Institute for Policy Studies’ Global Economy Project, indicates that corporations “really just let loose in 2021 and were focused on keeping their executives happy and not worrying as much about what was happening on the worker end.” Anderson further added that, “Workers, many of whom are on the front lines of the crisis, have not been reaping the rewards”.

Equilar’s analysis lends credibility to the growing body of data showing the decades-long trend of rising CEO pay and largely unchanged worker pay is continuing, regardless of the legislative measures to close the gap. The CEO compensation in the United States increased by 1,322 percent from 1978 to 2020. The average worker pay, on the other hand, increased by only 18 percent, according to a report by Economic Policy Institute (EPI). 

Ben Zipperer, an economist at EPI, argues that low wages are a distinctive attribute of the U.S. labor market, especially the service sector. Zipperer’s argument appears to be well-grounded in light of the Company Wage Tracker issued by EPI and Harvard University’s Shift Project, that shows employee salary distributions across roughly 70 significant retail and food-service companies, including Starbucks, Dollar General, Walmart, McDonald’s, and other well-known companies, using survey data.

“At Starbucks—where workers have sparked a union organizing wave in recent months—63% of workers make below $15 an hour,” EPI states . “At Dollar General and McDonald’s, 92% and 89% of workers, respectively, make below $15 an hour, with nearly one-in-four workers making below $10 an hour at both companies. A majority (51%) of workers make below $15 an hour at Walmart.” Contrary to popular notion, low pay is not limited to small businesses, but it is a characteristic of major stores and companies as well. 

The discrepancy points to the reality that in the country, a small number of people have so much and most of the people have too little. 

Originally Published at Commondreams.org, written by Jake Johnson.