$95.8 Million for Starbucks CEO, Only $14,674 Per Year for Workers. What a gap🙄

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I get it you're the CEO, you're elected to supervise, to manage, to ensure work is done but who does the work, the workers right?

The pay gap between executives and the workers has always been far apart with executives earning way more but the gap keeps getting bigger. I'm starting to see this as a moral crisis now.

In the United States today, they are witnessing a pay gap that is so wide that it has become a moral and economic crisis. There is a new study from the Institute for Policy Studies, which was reported by The Guardian website, which shows just how extreme the situation has become at America’s largest low wage companies.

I'll share the statistics link at the end

From their research I'll state it out,

Between 2019 and 2024, CEOs at the 100 lowest paying firms collected an average of $17.2 million a year. That my friend is a raise of nearly 35% in just five years. This should mean things are going up in the company but at the same time, their workers saw their pay rise only 16%, reaching a median of $35,570.

It looks like a big amount if you're earning that outside America in a country who's currency is very low but if you're living in America, this is an amount that doesn’t even keep up with inflation.

To even make matters worse, at 22 of these companies, worker pay actually went down in dollar terms. That means employees lost ground not only against rising prices but against their own past wages. It's downhill from here.

The average CEO to worker pay ratio at these firms has grown to about 632 to 1. So if you're earning a dollar, your CEO is earning 632 dollars, can you believe that? And you show up more than he does, put in effort more than he does.

That ratio alone in itself is shocking, but the real life examples are even harder to overlook. I'm back to talking about Starbucks again, I did that a couple of days ago.

At Starbucks, a brand that if you're familiar with, markets itself as progressive and community minded, has the CEO receiving $95.8 million in a year, while the median worker earned just $14,674. Of course we should not envy but you want to know that ratio?

It's 6,666 to 1

If you earn 1 dollar, your Starbucks CEO earned $6,666.

You could easily defend this system by saying CEOs create enormous value or that the market simply rewards talent but can anyone truly believe that a Starbucks CEO works 6,666 times harder or smarter than a barista serving coffee at 5 a.m. I doubt the CEO is even awake at that time.

The real truth is that this is not a problem of talent or merit, it's the power dynamics and it is also about how wealth has been concentrated at the top while those at the bottom struggle to pay rent or afford health care.

This inequality is not only unfair, it is very dangerous. When workers see executives earning millions while their own paychecks is even shrinking, it will inevitably fuel anger and resentment and the worst, apathy. The moment the main workers stopping being passionate about the work, there's no idea you the CEO can come up with that will be executed well enough.

There's so many companies that are examples from the news. Take Lowe’s, the home improvement giant company. Its CEO made $20.2 million in a year where the median worker brought home about $30,606.

So the ratio for this one was 659 to 1. They also spent about $46.6 billion on stock buybacks, that's supposed to be the money to increase executive pay and shareholder wealth.

When it comes to executives and shareholders, these companies don't hold back at all with the spending but for the worker who makes the company operate, well they'll thinking about it, right?

The money they used for the buybacks could have given each of its 273,000 employees a $28,456 bonus every year for six years straight. I understand shareholders bring in the cash for resources, but the truth is if these companies wanted to treat workers right they could have.

The Corporate boards and executives decide, year after year to reward themselves with millions and they decide to keep front line workers on poverty wages. They are deciding to pour billions into stock buybacks instead of investing in the people who actually make the business run.

The pay gap between CEOs and workers has become a symbol of what is broken in the American economy and economies all around the world. Until that gap reduces or let me say narrows, inequality will continue to grow, and with it, the social and political divisions that threaten us all.

Stats link from The Guardian

Screenshot also taken from same site

Funniest thing about the image is the woman with the plack that says no contract no coffee.