CEOs paid less than who?

Listen to the rhetoric, Google CEO pay and you will learn of some really high numbers. What you won’t find without some digging is the truth. 

The average CEO pay is around $170,000 with about double that in total compensation. Even those stratosphere reported pay packages for some of the top 500 CEOs are mostly non-cash compensation with the actual value not certain. 

But dig a little further and you will find average CEO pay is about half the average compensation of the hundreds of top union leaders in the U.S., yes half. And there is another big difference.  CEO pay comes from the profits of the business, hence shareholders while the union leader pay comes from the pockets of union members in the form of dues and other fees. 

So, I ask you whose pay has the most direct negative impact on working Americans? 

I’m not saying union leaders are overpaid, but rather we need to keep a perspective on compensation and its impact on the middle class. A CEO getting a zillion stock options or restricted shares from his/her employer is quite irrelevant to average Americans and yet the political class uses such information to foster class envy and promote its inequality agenda. 

[As an aside. I am at a resort in Florida. Here too is a Boilermakers union having a conference in grand style. Yesterday’s meeting ended at 11:30 and groups of delegates were then enjoying the beach in the afternoon. Today at 3:00 they are closing the pool area for their evening affair. The head of that union earns over half a million a year. Who do you think is paying for all this; not investors that’s for sure. Are they entitled to such meeting? Why not, but let’s stop pointing the finger only in the direction of business when it comes to pay, perks and yes, spending a great deal of money on elections.]