CEO pay went up in 2011.
Again.
The average CEO pay of companies in the S&P 500 Index rose to $12.94 million in 2011.[1]
Overall, the average level of CEO pay in the S&P 500 Index increased 13.9 percent in 2011, following a 22.8 percent increase in CEO pay in 2010.
2011 Average CEO Pay at S&P 500 Index Companies
Salary
$1,091,182
Bonus
$268,110
Stock Awards
$5,279,828
Option Awards
$2,352,544
Non-Equity Incentive Plan Compensation
$2,382,529
Pension and Deferred Compensation Earnings
$1,308,625
All Other Compensation
$252,657
TOTAL
$12,935,475
paywatch2012_skyrocket
The ratio of CEO-to-worker pay between CEOs of the S&P 500 Index companies and U.S. workers widened to 380 times in 2011 from 343 times in 2010.[2] Back in 1980, the average large company CEO only received 42 times the average worker's pay.[3]
CEOs supposedly deserve all this money for increasing shareholder value. However, while the average CEO pay increased 13.9 percent at S&P 500 Index companies in 2011, the S&P 500 Index ended the year at the same level as it started.
This double-digit increase in average CEO pay for the second consecutive year shows just how disconnected the top 1 percent is from the 99 percent. In 2011, average wages increased just 2.8 percent and average worker pay totaled
$34,053.[4]
Both workers and shareholders have suffered over the previous decade. On Dec. 31, 2010, the S&P 500 Index closed 19 percent below its high on March 24, 2000. U.S. median household income fell
$3,719 between 2000 and 2010.[5]
Runaway CEO pay is one reason why income inequality is growing in the United States. A Congressional Budget Office report found that inequality has risen dramatically, with the top 1 percent receiving most of the income growth between 1979 and 2007.[6]
What's more, a new study by economist Emmanuel Saez at the University of California shows that in 2010—the first year of the economy's recovery from the Great Recession—the top 1 percent captured 93 percent of the growth in income.[7]
[1] AFL-CIO analysis of 313 companies who disclosed CEO pay data as of April 1, 2012, as provided by Salary.com.
[2] AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch calculations.
[3] "CEOs: Why They're So Unloved," Businessweek, April 22, 2002.
[4] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Employment Statistics Survey—Table B-2: Average hours and earnings of production and non-supervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls.
[5] U.S. Census Bureau, Selected Measures of Household Income Dispersion, Table IE-1.
[6] "Trends in the Distribution of Household Income," Congressional Budget Office, October 2011.
[7] "Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States, (Updated with 2009 and 2010 Estimates)," Emmanuel Saez, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Economics, March 2, 2012
