CEOs get $800,000 pay raise, leaving workers further behind

https://www.apnews.com/1a68c31f2cb54b15af536cbe168442bfhttps://www.apnews.com/1a68c31f2cb54b15af536cbe168442bf

By STAN CHOEMay 24, 2019

Did you get a 7% raise last year? Congratulations, yours was in line with what CEOs at the biggest companies got. But for chief executives, that 7% was roughly $800,000.

Pay for CEOs at S&P 500 companies rose to a median of $12 million last year, including salary, stock and other compensation, according to data analyzed by Equilar for The Associated Press. The eight-figure packages continue to rise as companies tie more of their CEOs’ pay to their stock prices, which are still near record levels, and as profits hit an all-time high last year due to lower tax bills and a still-growing economy.

Pay for typical workers at these companies isn’t rising nearly as quickly. The median increase was 3% last year, less than half the growth for the top bosses. Median means half were larger, and half were smaller.

The survey showed that it would take 158 years for the typical worker at most big companies to make what their CEO did in 2018, seven years longer than if both were still at 2017 pay levels. And when top executives are already making so much more than their employees, the bigger percentage raises compound the widening financial gap.

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At more than 40% of the companies in this year’s survey, the CEO’s pay rose by at least double the percentage of the median worker’s pay gain.

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