MARKET WATCH
“CEO payflation strikes again,” the report said.
For its analysis, the AFL-CIO looked at compensation data for executives at 3,000 companies, including the 500 in the S&P 500 index SPX0.76%.
The average CEO-to-worker pay ratio was calculated as the arithmetic mean of the company’s disclosed pay ratios, the union federation said.
CEO pay increased 6% in 2023 from a year earlier. Workers’ median weekly earnings rose 5.45% to $1,142 in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The union blamed former President Donald Trump, now the Republican presidential nominee, for some of the disparity, saying that corporate tax breaks during his term boosted CEO pay.
“Economists estimate that 51% of the income gains from the corporate tax cuts went to firm owners, 10% went to the top five highest-paid senior executives, 38% went to the top 10% and 0% of the wage gains went to the bottom 90% of workers,” the AFL-CIO said.
Trump’s 2017 tax cuts lowered the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, and he has indicated he wants to cut it further if he wins a second term.
