Bernie Sanders basks in key income inequality victory: Why the new CEO pay rule is a such big deal

[think]

Bernie Sanders basks in key income inequality victory: Why the new CEO pay rule is a such big deal

By SOPHIA TESFAYE - WEDNESDAY, AUG 5, 2015 03:28 PM EDT

Rule requiring companies to disclose CEO-to-worker pay ratio is "an important step," 2016 hopeful says

Pretty soon, millions of American workers will know exactly how much less money they earn than their corporate bosses, as the Securities and Exchanges Commission voted in favor of a new rule today that requires every publicly traded company to regularly disclose the pay ratio between top company executives and their employees.

Although CEO pay is already revealed in a company’s annual proxy statement, this new rule will force corporations to assess and disclose the ratio of a chief executive’s compensation to the median compensation of their employees, starkly illuminating income inequality company-by-company.

As the New York Times reports, the vote passed by a 3-2 vote, with the Commission’s two Republicans voting against the measure, and will take effect in 2017 (although pay figures likely won’t be disclosed until 2018). Mary Jo White, the chairwoman of the SEC who has faced mounting pressure to act on executive compensation — including a searing letter from Sen. Elizabeth Warren — voted in support of the rule.

A study by the Economic Policy Institute earlier this year found that in 2014, chief executive pay was 303 times higher than the average worker’s pay. EPI president Lawerence Mishel applaud the new rule, noting that the compensation of top CEOs grew nearly 1,000 percent from 1978 to 2014 and accounted for the “doubling of the income shares of the top 1.0 percent and top 0.1 percent of U.S. households from 1979 to 2007.”...

Full article:
http://www.salon.com/2015/08/05/bernie_sanders_basks_in_key_income_inequality_victory_why_the_new_ceo_pay_rule_is_a_such_big_deal/

[Demeter]

1. I fail to see how that matters

until workers regain their lost power, it's only food for the gossip rags.

[sulphurdunn]

6. It's not a bullet,

but it is a grain of powder.

[Scuba]

2. Theater that will effect nothing.

[think]

3. It may be. Bernie hopes it will help shine a light on income inequality

My posts have been a bit off pudding today (OK. My posts are always a bit off pudding )and must admit I neglected to put Bernie's statement in my post:

“The decision to require companies to disclose how much more CEOs are paid than workers is an important step in the fight against income inequality,” Sanders said. “The average chief executive in America now makes nearly 300 times more than the average worker – and the gap between the people at the top and working families is growing wider and wider. I hope that shining a spotlight on the disparity will help working families.”

Maybe it won't move the needle but one never knows....

[SoapBox]

4. More information, is always a good thing.

Maybe this new info will make a few employees finally pay attention...get really mad...and vote for Bernie.

To the naysayers, that's a bad thing? I don't get the shoulder shrug.

[erronis]

8. Unfortunately, most of us have been "re-educated" to think this gap is OK

Like the (non-existent) frog in a pot of heating water, we have become inured to watching our top bosses drive away with the loot while we have been told that "times are tough".

[Divernan]

9. It was important enough for Elizabeth Warren to write a "searing letter"

and that makes it important to me. Certainly for any workers who are unionized it gives a powerful tool come contract negotiation time. And for workers who aren't unionized, it gives incentive to vote to become unionized.

[dreamnightwind]

13. Love your posts!

Thanks for this one.

Off pudding? LOL, the proof is in the pudding is what I always here, we'll see about this rule, seems like having informed workers, shareholders, and customers can only be a good thing.

Thanks for adding Bernie's statement, he and Elizabeth could do great things together.

[RichVRichV]

12. It will have an effect.

It might be a tiny effect, but they all add up. Every time we expose how bad the gap has become it wakes a few more people up to the problem.

Right now the wealth gap is obscene and yet too many people are oblivious to it. They might see the 300x US average and go 'oh well that sucks but the big corp I work for isn't that bad'. Once people can see just how bad their own corporation is it becomes personal to them. They can see just how badly they are getting screwed, not some random person else where in this country. Some times it takes an emotional connection to a problem to make people see it.

The effect might be minimal by itself, but it's still worth it. If we can make enough people recognize the problem we'll reach critical mass and then change will finally happen.

[Qutzupalotl]

5. This is a very welcome change!

Knowledge is power. It's up to us to use it.

This will put downward pressure on obscene CEO salaries, which are strangling our economy. Public shaming is an effective tool, provided we make use of it.

[Divernan]

11. Hit their bottom line - boycott their products.

Not always easy to do, but it sure is with a cookie baker!

[sulphurdunn]

7. This is important because

Wall Street types won't like it even if it doesn't hurt them. Their thin skins will feel it as disrespect. That's a start.

[Divernan]

10. CEO of Nabisco's parent company raked in a $21 million salary in 2014.

At Chicago's OREO cookie plant, she's outsourcing 600 well-paying and community-sustaining jobs and sending them to Mexico. https://www.facebook.com/unions4workers/photos/a.382570358495776.91387.382154581870687/867281566691317/?type=1&theater


UNION BUSTING IS DISGUSTING. "IF" CEO Irene Rosenfeld could learn to live on "just" $2 million a year, that $19 million could be used to save 600 jobs, and the company’s bottom line would still be the same. Unions 4 Workers via In These Times | Read more here: http://bit.ly/1UimV4E

SEC approves rule that says publicly traded companies have to show the pay gap between its CEOs and its workers.

Companies say this is meant to embarrass them.
How much do CEOs make compared to their workers? We'll know in 2017.

So here's one possible impact/repurcussion of revealing CEO's pay. Boycott the product. I've liked OREOs for some 65 years. No mas, boss. They're history.