- April 5, 2023
- Policy Matters Ohio
- Michael Shields
A thriving community depends on the work of everyone, from the retail clerk who greets customers to the janitor who cleans the countertop. But for decades, corporate executives held down pay for the typical Ohio worker, while they lavished themselves with enormous raises. The pandemic has magnified the growing disparity. CEOs in 2020 took home windfall gains from stock price growth during COVID while frontline workers risked their lives for often menial pay. Now, as we have made strides to overcome the most severe health risks of COVID-19, CEOs continue to raise their pay by using their unique power over corporate boards, stock buybacks and new consumer price gouging. The result is an ever-widening gulf between themselves and the shop floor workers. At a time when ordinary workers’ bargaining power has been significantly eroded by corporate attacks on unions, CEOs’ pay reflects their privileged status to influence the board that sets their pay, and it further separates the fortunes of the wealthiest from the rest of us.