Dozens of large companies "rigged" CEO pay during pandemic, study claims
CBSN
Half of the 100 largest U.S. employers of low-wage workers adjusted their CEO pay packages last year, sweetening rewards for chief executives during the pandemic while cutting pay for average workers.
The study, from the Institute for Policy Studies, found that CEO pay at 51 of 100 companies whose compensation practices were examined by by the left-leaning think tank rose an average of 29% last year. Meanwhile, many of those same companies reduced or furloughed its workers. As a result, the average worker's paycheck for 2020 fell 2% at those companies. "The most common justification for pumping up CEO pay during the pandemic was that it was critical to 'retain talent,'" said Sarah Anderson, lead author of the IPS chief executive pay study. "The notion that one individual almost single-handedly creates corporate value, and so he should be paid whatever it takes to keep him from abandoning ship, has always been absurd. But in the middle of a pandemic crisis, when frontline employees are demonstrating just how essential they are to our economy and health, it's even more preposterous."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.