Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Inequality and Productivity

The genius of capitalism



"Raising America’s Pay - Why It’s Our Central Economic Policy Challenge," Josh Bivens, Elise Gould, Lawrence Mishel, and Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute, June 4, 2014

I look at the chart above and see my working career, 1973 - 2015.

Two decades ago, CEO's were paid about 40 times more than the average hourly employee; now they make more than 500 times the wage of the average hourly employee. The Marine Corps commandant is paid just 13 times more than a new private in boot camp.
Robert Hemsley, paper mill worker, July 20, 2002

[From 1970 to 1999], according to Fortune magazine, the average real annual compensation of the top 100 C.E.O.'s went from $1.3 million - 39 times the pay of an average worker - to $37.5 million, more than 1,000 times the pay of ordinary workers.
Paul Krugman, The New York Times, October 20, 2002