CEOs Are Paid On Average 339 Times More Than Their Workers: Study

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, released a study on Wednesday that found CEOs in the United States are paid on average 339 times more than their workers, highlighting the country’s “extreme economic divide.”

“The CEO-worker pay ratio is a dramatic indicator of our country’s extreme economic divide,” the report’s executive summary reads.

At 188 out of the 225 companies analyzed, a single CEO’s salary could be used to pay more than 100 workers.

The report also found that at 219 of the 225 companies, an average employee would need to work for more than 45 years to make what their CEO makes in one year.

The Hill added:

Ellison was a vocal advocate for a rule put in place under the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that required U.S. publicly held corporations to disclose how much their CEOs make in comparison to the median salary of other workers.

That law requires companies to report how much their CEOs make in comparison to the median salaries of other workers at the companies. Companies fought the rule, with some arguing that including the median pay of workers overseas would improperly exaggerate the pay gap.

The rule requires both U.S. and non-U.S. employees to be counted, but allows companies to exclude non-U.S. employees if they make up five percent or less of the company’s overall workforce.