CEO Pay: US Bosses Earn 400 Times More Than Workers [infographic]

us ceo pay featured
Written by David Michaelis

According to the data, US CEOs earn more than 300 times what average workers do. Is this CEO pay greed or genius? You be the judge. Infographic.

aNewDomain — CEO pay varies widely from country to country.

But in the United States it’s just out of whack.

This is according to Maclean’s, which analyzed the CEO pay ratio of CEOs relative to average workers. Check out the infographic below. You’ll see just how out of balance American society is, and how the corporate model is depriving hard workers of most of the cash.

ceo pay worker ratio infographic gloabl ceo-to-worker pay ratios

Gloabl Ceo-to-Worker Pay Ratios infographic: CourtesyMaclean’s

US CEO pay: The secret sauce

The infographic begs the question: Are German and Japanese CEOs ignorant to the maximization of workers’ capital? Or is there a secret sauce that only US CEOs know? It seems that greed rolled in impunity is the name of this secret sauce. Americans know how to dish it up well.

The differences are mind-boggling. It’s disgusting, but is it really that surprising? The New York Times remarked:

Last week, we learned that Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, was paid $9.2 million for 2014. Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase made $20 million. The Starbucks chief Howard Schultz took home $21.5 million. And Viacom said that its chief, Philippe Dauman, received $44.3 million.”

Is CEO pay really worth it?

Apparently these guys are so special that they are irreplaceable. Who really thinks they’re worth that much, doing what they do, day after day? In the Middle East we have a saying: “Cemeteries are full of people who thought that they were irreplaceable.”

This “masters of the universe” concept that grips CEOs has no parallel in the history of US economic rewards. Wall Street does not limit the pay raises, and neither does the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It’s clear that inequality is growing is the US faster than the US economy is. Maybe it’s time we all became CEOs.

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Featured image: Roll of Cash by 401(k) 2012 via Flickr