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 Reuters his pay was “competitive” compared to other CEOs at big companies, as well as vested over 10 years but did not respond to Entrepreneur’s request for comment.
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.
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