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HOW BIG WAS YOUR 2010 RAISE?
CEOs of the largest companies in America received, on average, $11.4 million in total compensation last year—they got a 23 percent raise from 2009.
Want to see how you stack up against the nation’s top CEOs?
Go to www.PayWatch.org to find out and take action.
How many firefighters, nurses, teachers or construction workers does it take to equal the pay of one CEO today?
Use our our new Executive PayWatch Facebook app to find out.
Brothers and Sisters,
How much did your pay go up in 2010? How about your friends and family? Working people in America are hurting—that’s for sure. They’re lucky to have jobs at all—and if they have jobs, odds are their pay is pretty much flat, or worse.
Now, consider this: In 2010, the average pay of a CEO at a major American company went up by 23 percent—to $11.4 million.
Despite the collapse of the financial markets at the hands of many of these same executives less than three years ago, the disparity between CEO and workers’ pay has continued to grow to levels that are simply stunning.
Take a look at 2011 Executive PayWatch, released this morning, to find out just how outrageous things have gotten.
Instead of investing to create good middle-class jobs and grow the economy, corporate CEOs are hoarding $2 trillion in cash.
Except, of course, when it comes to their own paychecks.
Go to the site, www.PayWatch.org, to see some of the worst examples of CEO pay.
Although pay is more out of balance than it has been during most of our lifetimes, for the first time there is hope that things are changing.
That’s because of a new law—the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2011. It’s a law that’s working today.
This year, for the first time ever, every public company is giving its shareholders an advisory vote on CEO pay. And soon, companies will be required to disclose the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay for their median employee—which will publicize just how inequitable things are at individual corporations.
These powerful new rules already are under attack—congressional Republicans have announced their intention to repeal Wall Street reform.
Go to www.PayWatch.org to urge Congress to keep tools for reining in CEO pay, share ridiculous pay disparities with your friends on Facebook, and help us build a movement to keep Wall Street in check.
In 2010, while most Americans were learning the hard way how to make do with less, and small businesses all across the country were shutting their doors, CEOs at our largest companies and Wall Street executives still found a way to make out like bandits. That’s something that’s got to change.
Of course, corporate CEOs would prefer to keep the public in the dark about the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay at their company. And it’s no surprise they wish shareholders didn’t have a “say on pay” vote.
But it shocks me they have the nerve to argue for these policies in public—and lobby for them—after their companies drove our country off an economic cliff. As if this is an argument they actually can win.
The AFL-CIO is ready to have this debate. We will take on Wall Street, and we will win, step by step—until we’ve finally restored some balance. We’ll start by protecting the historic progress we’ve made with Wall Street reform, and give it time to work.
Check out PayWatch to learn about the highest-paid CEOs in your field.
Then, use our new Facebook app to explore how CEO pay compares with other professions, and keep this conversation going.
And be ready to keep fighting for working families.
In solidarity,
Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO
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