Graphic of the Week: CEO pandemic-pay pruning never happened

Despite promises from many CEOs to forgo pay increases in 2020, EPI research shows CEO compensation jumped nearly 16%.

reaDER,   Last year required many of us to make personal sacrifices. EPI research into preliminary data shows this sacrifice did not extend to many of America's CEOs.   Our researchers reviewed data from 281 large firms filing information on CEO compensation through the end of April. What EPI found: CEO pay jumped nearly 16% in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, while average worker compensation rose 1.8%.   This contrast in pay between executives and workers isn't new, but it's doubly outrageous that so many in the nation's corner offices enjoyed a windfall during the pandemic while so many struggled economically. The new findings show that the offers made by CEOs to forgo salary increases during the pandemic were largely symbolic. Salaries were stable, but many CEOs pocketed a windfall by cashing in stock options and obtaining vested stock awards, compounding income inequalities laid bare during the past year.   Please take a moment to share this graphic with your friends and family and encourage them to read EPI's latest CEO pay analysis. SHARE ON FACEBOOK SHARE ON TWITTER SHARE ON INSTAGRAM While the growth of CEO pay was far from uniform—some benefitted from a much greater increase in compensation than others—this analysis shows that the stock market growth in 2020 contributed to a major leap forward in CEO compensation, compounding the income and wealth inequalities that have emerged in the pandemic. There are also examples of firms making "discretionary adjustments" to their compensation schemes to shield CEOs from "the pandemic's adverse impact on the company's financial results." Such adjustments, of course, were not made for rank-and-file workers. This is why EPI was created: to ensure the needs of workers and their families would be reflected in economic policy discussions so that the rich and powerful are not the only ones benefiting from policy decisions. reaDER, would you be able to chip in $5 or more to help EPI continue our vital role as a watchdog to monitor and expose where workers are getting a raw deal, while putting forward policy solutions to help raise wages for everyone, not just the wealthy few?   Thank you for continuing to be an active reader and helping EPI by sharing our research and resources with your network. We appreciate everything you do for our collective movement.   Eve Tahmincioglu Director of Communications, Economic Policy Institute DONATE Facebook Twitter epi.org View this email in your browser | Unsubscribe from this list