CEOs at these ‘low wage’ S&P 500 companies enjoy lavish salaries while their workers struggle: report

As the wealth gap continues to widen in our K-shaped economy, the gulf between workers and their CEOs is growing too. CEOs of companies on the S&P 500 make, on average, 312 times what their median worker is paid. On a subset of that list, though, the difference is even starker: When looking at the 100 S&P 500 corporations with the lowest median workers pay, that ratio grows to 615 to 1, up from 566 to 1 in 2019. The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a progressive research organization, dubs those companies the “Low Wage 100.” In a new report, called “Executive Excess,” IPS looks at how “Low Wage 100” CEOs are pulling in more money while their workers’ wages stagnant. Beyond that widening wealth gap, the report also highlights how such companies seem to turn a blind eye to government actions that harm their workers, from cuts to public benefit programs like Medicaid and SNAP to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement—which has targeted workers, sometimes, at their places of employment. To Sarah Anderson, who authored the report and directs the Global Economic Project at the institute, those challenges facing workers are interconnected. Sky-high CEO pay has p…