The top executives at large US companies are paid 278 times more than their company's workers and the gap continues to widen, according to a study published Wednesday. Average CEO compensation at the 350 largest US firms in 2018 was $17.2 million a year, including stock options, which generally account for two-thirds of their pay packages, according to a study by the Economic Policy Institute.
The gap between CEO and workers has soared from 58-to-1 in 1989 and 20-to-1 in 1965, according to EPI, a nonpartisan think tank that focuses on issues facing low- and middle-income workers. From 1978 to 2018, CEO compensation has increased by more than 1,000 percent - with increasingly rich stock awards - while worker pay has risen just under 12 percent.
"This escalation of CEO compensation, and of executive compensation more generally, has fueled the growth of top 1.0% and top 0.1% incomes, leaving less of the fruits of economic growth for ordinary workers and widening the gap between very high earners and the bottom 90%," the study said.