The Wall Street Journal reports that CEO pay was up yet again last year. Here’s the chart:
Big-company CEOs have seen a median pay raise of about 40 percent since 2010. Ordinary workers have seen a pay raise of 20 percent. Adjusted for inflation, that’s 25 percent for CEOs and 5 percent for ordinary workers.
And why not? After all, CEOs have been coasting along on a long wave of good economic times, and why shouldn’t they be rewarded for that? What’s more, in 2016 they helped elect a guy who gave them a big tax cut in 2017. Why shouldn’t they be rewarded for that too?
As for ordinary workers, they coasted along too, and they also voted for the tax-cut guy. Oddly enough, no one thinks they should be rewarded for that. Go figure.
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