CEO's Get 312 Times What An Average Worker Is Paid

The chart above, from the Economic Policy Institute, shows the average CEO compensation compared to the average worker's wage. Currently, a CEO makes about 311.7 times what the average worker does. The CEO's were making even more (343.5) before the Bush Recession. But they have recovered from that recession, and their compensation is once again on the rise.

The same cannot be said for workers. While CEO compensation is rising sharply again, worker wages remain flat.

It was not always this way. Back in the 1960's and 1970's, CEO's made only 20 to 30 times what the average worker made. That's because rising productivity was being shared with workers (thanks to strong unions and a fair government economic policy). Things changed when the Republicans seized control of government and instituted their "trickle-down" economic policy (which favored the rich to the detriment of everyone else).

Note how CEO compensation began to rise sharply after the GOP policies went into effect. Thanks to those policies, productivity no longer had to be shared with workers. Instead it was hogged by executives and stockholders, and workers were left out in the cold (and a middle class that is declining).

We must change this. We need an economic policy that is fair to everyone -- not just the rich. But that won't happen until the Republicans are voted out of power. And the sooner that happens, the better. We already have a huge and growing gap between the rich and the rest of Americans. We need to reverse that gap before we become a third world nation (filled only with haves and have-nots).