Enforce a maximum salary for CEOs

Enforce a maximum salary for CEOs

Excerpt: Disparities in wages paid to CEOs and to average workers in large companies are an atrocious example of the wealth gap in the United States. Urge members of U.S. Congress to enforce a cap on salaries for CEOs as one step in fighting the battle against poverty.

Target: Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner

Goal: Create policies to set a maximum salary for CEOs of large companies.

According to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization (AFL-CIO), Fortune 500 CEOs made $12 million on average in 2012, approximately 350 times the overall workers' average of $34,645. This difference in income is one of the most devastating examples of injustice in the United States, and it's not getting better: recent research from Berkeley published in Pathways Magazine suggests that from 2009 to 2011, the wealthiest 1% of Americans had incomes growing by 11.2%. In contrast, income for all other Americans decreased by .4%.

Placing a cap on the amount of money made by CEOs of large corporations is an essential step toward reducing income disparity. One set of proposals for how to cap top earning salaries is to set the ceiling at a certain multiple of the lowest earners' wages of that company. For instance, Switzerland recently voted (in the negative) on a referendum to impose a "maximum wage" which would cap earnings at 12x the amount of the lowest earners.

Some opponents argue that a maximum waged based on the earnings of workers on a company-by-company basis would create unfair disadvantages for companies who have a larger range of employee income levels. As one writer for Marketplace.org notes, the average worker at a software company will make a great deal more than the average worker at another type of company, such as a hotel chain, where bottom-rung workers are likely to be paid much less, leading to the possibility that Company A, paying some employees less than Company B but generating more revenue than Company B, might end up paying its CEO less (or that some of Company A's employees might end up making more money than CEOs, if the cap is restricted to them). These are paltry complaints and worries bout discrepancies in millionaires' salaries pale in comparison to economic hardships experienced by average-salary workers (not to mention those in the bottom rungs).

Of course, capping CEO salaries represents one step in a series of events that is needed to reduce the gap in income disparity. According to AFL-CIO, CEOs make the majority of their money from sources other than salary, including bonuses (average: $200k), stocks and options (over $6.5 million, on average), pensions (over $1.5 million), non-equity incentive plans (about $2.3 million), and more. Taken together, the average total hourly earnings of a CEO is near $6,000. Meanwhile, minimum wage in some states remains as low as $5.15 per hour. The system is broken.

Urge members of Congress to help reverse this disparity in income. Ask Speaker John Boehner for help in creating a law that restricts outrageous wages for CEOs.

PETITION:

Dear Mr. Boehner,

Differences in wealth plague our country. The American Dream of equal opportunity for all citizens has been displaced by an extreme un-equalizer: a huge disparity in pay for the poorest and wealthiest.

In order to begin to reduce the gap in wealth, I urge you to consider laws that cap the earnings of CEOs of large corporations. Whether the cap be a set number or a sliding ceiling based on a percentage of the average or minimum worker earnings, either option is a better alternative than allowing some individuals to make order of magnitude more money than their employees.

Placing a cap on CEOs' salaries is just one step in a large battle toward reducing large disparity in incomes. CEOs currently make a large amount of their income not from salary but from other sources, such as stocks, options, and pension plans. In total CEOs on average make about $6,000 an hour, which is more than one thousand times the minimum wage in place in states like Wyoming and Georgia.

I urge you to use your power to help to reverse these disparities. Consider setting a maximum wage cap in order to make the United States a place where justice can prevail and individuals may pursue their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]