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Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Check your paycheck
Good news for CEOs. The ratio of the average CEO compensation to the average worker is up to 431 to 1 (via the Blotter ). That's up from 301 to 1 last year, but down from 525 to 1 in 2001. In 1990, the ratio was 107 to 1.
Bad news for everyone else. The Median Household Income (PDF) hasn't budged in the last 4 years. People are doing better in San Diego, but worse in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Antonio. Nationally, "Median household income in the United States in 2004 was $44,684. This was not different from median household income in 2003 ($44,686, in 2004 dollars)." Put another way:
The lack of wage pressure in tandem with faster inflation from other sources has led to a uniquely unbalanced outcome: the real hourly wages of these workers remain at almost the exact same level as when the current recovery began in November 2001. In July 2005 dollars, the wage was $16.15 in November 2001 but only $16.13 last month.
In fact, workers have been losing ground in wages since May, 2004.
None of this, of course, includes the common experience of decreasing benefits. Real wages are stagnant (at best), but the calculation of real wages does not include the fact that real benefits have steadily decreased. Insurance coverages are restricted, copayments are up, and workers are paying a great share of prescription drug costs.
We truly have a CEO president -- he's doing just fine, thank you very much, while the rest of us are struggling harder to make ends meet.
Must be a Bush thing. Median household incomes declinedby 8% from 1989 to 1993.
