One expert noted that “workers, many of whom are on the front lines of the crisis, have not been reaping the rewards” of record-breaking corporate profits.
This story on CEO pay was originally published in Common Dreams.
An analysis released Monday shows that the CEOs of some of the largest corporations in the United States made 254 times more than their median employees in 2021 as executive bonuses and stock awards grew significantly.
According to the latest edition of the Equilar 100, an annual report that spotlights executive pay at leading U.S. companies, median total CEO compensation at top firms soared to $20 million in 2021, a nearly 31% increase from 2020.
“Increases were seen across all pay components,” notes the new analysis, which lists the total compensation and CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio of the 100 largest U.S. companies by revenue, a ranking that includes Apple, Microsoft, Raytheon, and Intel.
“While median salary and median perks increased incrementally, the largest jumps were examined in the form of cash bonuses and stock awards,” the analysis notes. “The median value of stock awards increased by 22.7% in 2021, from $8.6 million to $10.5 million. Meanwhile, cash bonuses increased by 46.4% in 2021, from $2.8 million to $4.2 million.”
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger topped the Equilar 100 list with $177.9 million in total compensation in 2021 followed by Apple CEO Tim Cook, who took home $98.7 million last year—a 569% increase from 2020.
Amid record-shattering corporate profits and surging CEO pay, typical workers continued to struggle in 2021 as the coronavirus kept spreading and rising prices of food, housing, and other necessities eroded their modest wage gains. As Bloomberg reported last month, “employee compensation rose 11%” in 2021, “but the so-called labor share of national income—essentially, the portion that’s paid out as wages and salaries—fell back to pre-pandemic levels.”
Read the full story on Common Dreams.
More on CEO pay from The Young Turks: