Ah yes, the "minimum wage" for the worker must be kept down, yet the CEO NEEDS to make more in one hour than those workers in a year do.
Explain why.
Explain why the average CEO needs to make $11 MILLION dollars and more in one day than the average US worker who makes $42,000 a year?
Explain to me why you believe that anyone who works 40 hours a week should not make enough to buy food, pay their mortgage, afford their kids and be able to save a little while being able to afford a decent lifestyle.
I know people who work 40 hours a week and have to choose between buying gas to get to work or food for their kids..... Is that what America is about?
What happened to an honest day's wage for an honest day's work?
You pay people shit you get shit back in quality.
If you paid the honest hard worker more and gave him respect, perhaps you would find that you would have less turnover, more and higher quality production and more loyal customers.
If companies paid decent wages minimum wage wouldn't be an issue would it? Oh yeah, it's a bargaining chip for the non existent and pretty much decimated unions, that's right. Or no it means prices go up because those people who pay the minimum wage (or wages that are unliveable) want to punish everyone for the raise they must give, God forbid the bosses have to take a pay cut.
You have Congress giving themselves raises (oh yeah.... they vote the raises for the next Congress.... oops sorry just what 75+% get re-elected, so they'll benefit).... and with their benefits they don't truly ever have to touch their pay.
You claim you pay too much in taxes taking care of the "poor people".... hmmmm..... well maybe if you demanded companies paid better, liveable wages so that the people who DID work could afford to live, afford medical afford food afford to send their kids to college and be able to feel like they are someone because they have a little bit of money....... GUESS WHAT? Your fucking taxes would probably start going for better use, because the social part of the taxes wouldn't be such a strain.... more people making better wages, needing less government help = fewer social taxes needed....
What is so impossible to see about that?
But by all means keep arguing CEO's need to make more in 1 day than the average worker does in a year.
By all means keep picking and choosing which 40 hour a week jobs are meaningless and those who work them don't deserve a liveable wage.
Some people all they desire in life is enough to live a decent life ....... WTF is wrong with that? We need people who are willing to work jobs "of menial labor" and if they are working and trying to live a respectable life then who is anyone to say they do not deserve a decent wage?
Maybe if we paid better wages we wouldn't have to have the mothers work. Maybe all those people who one on hand are crying about the family not being close yet refuse to allow minimum wage to go up, would realize if you paid more and the family could live on one wage earner.... maybe we'd have closer families and less divorces.
Of course none of this makes sense to any of you who oppose any type of minimum wage?
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This week's Snapshot previews data to be presented as part of the forthcoming The State of Working America 2006/07.
Snapshot for June 27, 2006.
CEO pay-to-minimum wage ratio soars
by Lawrence Mishel
In 2005, an average Chief Executive Officer (CEO) was paid 821 times as much as a minimum wage earner, who earns just $5.15 per hour. An average CEO earns more before lunchtime on the very first day of work in the year than a minimum wage worker earns all year.
The chart below shows the ratio of the average annual compensation of CEOs—including all bonuses, incentives, and so on*—to the annual compensation of a full-time, full-year minimum wage earner (assumed to receive an average amount of benefits).
This extreme compensation ratio reflects both the extraordinary growth of CEO pay and also the diminishing value of the federal minimum wage that has not been raised since 1997: adjusting for inflation, the purchasing power of the minimum wage is now at its lowest since 1955.
The ratio wasn't always so extreme. As recently as 1978, CEOs were paid only 78 times as much as minimum wage earners.
*Data note:
CEO pay is realized direct compensation defined as the sum of salary, bonus, value of restricted stock at grant, and other long-term incentive award payments from a Mercer Survey conducted for the Wall Street Journal and prior Wall Street Journal-sponsored surveys. This survey covered 350 large industrial and service firms that filed their proxy statements by the beginning of April. The minimum wage earners' compensation is based on the level of the federal minimum wage at a full-time, year-round job along with benefits calculated at the economy-wide ratio of compensation to wages.
For more on CEO pay disparity, see last week's Snapshot.
Economic Snapshots are a weekly presentation of downloadable charts and short analyses designed to graphically illustrate important economic issues. Updated every Wednesday.
Check out the archive for past Economic Snapshots.
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This week's Snapshot previews data to be presented as part of the forthcoming The State of Working America 2006/07.
Snapshot for June 21, 2006.
CEO-to-worker pay imbalance grows
by Lawrence Mishel
In 2005, the average CEO in the United States earned 262 times the pay of the average worker, the second-highest level of this ratio in the 40 years for which there are data. In 2005, a CEO earned more in one workday (there are 260 in a year) than an average worker earned in 52 weeks.
The 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s have been prosperous times for top U.S. executives, especially relative to other wage earners. This can be seen by examining the increased divergence between CEO pay and an average worker’s pay over time, as shown in Figure A. In 1965, U.S. CEOs in major companies earned 24 times more than an average worker; this ratio grew to 35 in 1978 and to 71 in 1989. The ratio surged in the 1990s and hit 300 at the end of the recovery in 2000. The fall in the stock market reduced CEO stock-related pay (e.g., options) causing CEO pay to moderate to 143 times that of an average worker in 2002. Since then, however, CEO pay has exploded and by 2005 the average CEO was paid $10,982,000 a year, or 262 times that of an average worker ($41,861).
*Data note:
CEO pay is realized direct compensation defined as the sum of salary, bonus, value of restricted stock at grant, and other long-term incentive award payments from a Mercer Survey conducted for the Wall Street Journal and prior Wall Street Journal-sponsored surveys. Worker pay is the hourly wage of production and nonsupervisory workers, assuming the economy-wide ratio of compensation to wages and a full-time, year-round job.
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AS YOU SEE IT IS NOT JUST BUSH AND THE GOP THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALLOWING THIS. (sorry for the cap sentence but I do not want anyone using partisanship as their excuse.....)
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Snapshot for July 26, 2006.
Federal inaction forces states to raise minimum wages
By EPI policy analyst Mary C. Gable
The minimum wage is a measure of how we value work in this country. It should reflect a deal society makes with every worker in America that, if you work hard and play by the rules, then you are entitled to a decent day's wages for a decent day's work.
States across the country are raising the minimum wage through legislative action and ballot initiative. Recognizing the inadequacy of the federal level set in 1997, the states continue to lead the charge to protect low-wage workers. In total, 22 states and the District of Columbia have enacted minimum wages greater than the federally mandated level. This year alone eight states have raised their minimum wage. Fifty-eight percent of the national population now lives in states that have, or are about to have, minimum wages higher than the federal level (see the chart below).
Since the last federal increase in September 1997, the purchasing power of the minimum wage has deteriorated by 20% (after accounting for inflation) and is actually at its lowest value since 1955. In response, this year state legislatures in Arkansas, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania increased their minimum wages above the federal level for the first time. Maine, Delaware, and Rhode Island (states with minimum rates already above the federal level) have passed additional increases this year.
Legislation to increase the minimum wage is also currently moving forward in California and Massachusetts. On July 21, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney vetoed a minimum wage increase that would raise it to $8 over the course of two years, but his veto faces an override in the state legislature. Voters are also forcing wage increases through ballot initiative. Initiatives in Arizona, Montana, and Nevada have qualified for this year's ballot. With necessary petition signatures already submitted, the Missouri minimum wage ballot initiative is close to its official qualification. Colorado and Ohio are likely to have ballot initiatives this year, too.
Nationwide, in the face of federal inaction, legislators and voters alike are responding to workers' calls for a fair minimum wage.
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Links:
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/we...shots_20060621
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/we...shots_20060627
http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/webfe...shots_20060726