America Has More Low-Paying
Jobs Than Any Other
Developed Country

By:  Kevin Short

The Huffington Post

Wednesday, September 24, 2014--America may be exceptional in many ways, but it also tops the charts of a new, troubling ranking.

The U.S. has more low-paying jobs than any other country in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, an economic group of 34 developed countries, according to a research note released by Morgan Stanley on Monday.

Economists Ellen Zentner and Paula Campbell based their analysis on the OECD Economic Outlook Report, which documents employment and labor trends in each member nation.

The OECD defines "low-paying" as jobs that earn less than two-thirds of a country's median income.

On average, around 16 percent of jobs in OECD countries are considered low-paying. In the U.S., over 25 percent of all jobs qualify as such.

The pay gap between CEOs
and workers is much worse
than you realize

By Roberto Ferdman

The Washington Post

Thursday, September 25, 2014--Americans might think they know how bad inequality is, but it turns out they actually have no idea.

A new study conducted at Harvard Business School found that Americans believe CEOs make roughly 30 times what the average worker makes in the U.S., when in actuality they are making more than 350 times the average worker.

"Americans drastically underestimated the gap in actual incomes between CEOs and unskilled workers," the study says.

But that underestimation isn't merely drastic—it is also unmatched in the world.

The gap between Americans' perception and reality is the most among any of the 16 countries for which the researchers measured both the perceived and actual pay inequality.

Part of that stems from Americans’ comparatively modest estimation.

The citizens of four countries—South Korea, Australia, Chile, and Taiwan—estimate a higher pay gap between CEOs and low level workers.

In South Korea, the perception is that CEOs make 42 times more than the average worker; in Australia, it’s just over 41; in Taiwan, it’s roughly 34; and in Chile, it’s about 33.

But the reason Americans are so bad at guessing how much CEOs make may also be tied to the fact that American CEOs are significantly better paid than those from just about anywhere else.

The average CEO in the United States makes more than $12 million per year, which is nearly five million dollars more than the amount for those in Switzerland, where the second highest paid CEOs live, more than twice that for those in Germany, where the third highest paid CEOs live, and more than twenty one times that for CEOs in Poland.