Labour Day - CEOs v. Workers

Chief executives of American companies made an average of $10.8 million last year, more than 364 times the average pay of American workers, according to a new study by two groups advocating changes they say would lessen the disparity.

"The outrageously massive rewards now attainable at the top of our economic ladder do our society no good," the report concludes

• According to this year's report, CEOs received an average of $1.3 million in pension benefits last year. By contrast, less than 60 percent of households led by someone aged 45 to 54 had a retirement account in 2004. Between 2001 and 2004, those retirement accounts gained only $3,775 annually, the report states.
• The study's authors calculated that it would take a minimum-wage worker 36 years to earn the $438,342 CEOs received on average last year in club memberships, corporate jet use and other perquisites.

LINK: The Staggering Social Cost of US Business Leadership