This doesn’t seem right:
Let’s break this down. (All figures, by the way, are adjusted for inflation)
From 1990 to 2005, the average CEO pay went up almost 300 percent, whereas the average worker pay went up 4.3 percent. And minimum wage, in real dollars, went down 9.3 percent.
Look, I get capitalism. The heads of corporations get more money. I get that. And I’m quite content — barely — for them to earn 107 times as much as the average worker (which was the case in 1990).
But now there are earning 411 times as much as the average worker.
Does this strike anyone else as, well, wrong?
UPDATE: And five minutes after I wrote that, I read this:
Citigroup plans to eliminate one of every 20 positions as part of what Reuters describes as a "a broad restructuring designed to cut costs and bolster its long underperforming stock."
The company says 17,000 of 327,000 positions are targeted for elimination, with 9,500 jobs moving to off-shore locations with lower-cost workers.
"This is the beginning of a change in how we manage expenses," CEO Charles Prince said on a conference call. "You will see a more efficient, more tightly managed, and a more tough-minded Citigroup than you’ve seen in the past."
Very nice.
Oh, by the way, according to this, Citicorp CEO Charles Prince’s total compensation for 2006 was over $25,000,000, an increase of 20% from the previous year.