The Wall Street Journal (now owned by the infamous Rupert Murdoch so don't give me that liberal press bias crap) reported this week that while the rest of our population has seen falling or stagnant pay, CEOs pay is continuing on it's climb.
Most people would agree that in order for a CEO to make large wages then they should be innovative, risk takers and stand out in a crowd. Instead we have CEOs like Larry Young of the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. He made $6.5 million this year. He thinks that his workers are getting paid too much. A fork lift driver making $20/hour when across town there are fork lift drivers that work for less than $10/hr. The company went across the board and cut all factory workers by $1.50/hr. Despite making over a $Billion, the company said it isn't enough.
So the company is trying to cash in on the labor glut to make even more money. Let's do the math. 300 workers at $1.50/hour comes to about a $Million. What about the CEO taking a $M pay cut and letting the workers wages alone. At $5.5M he would still land in the top 1% of CEO pay for companies of this size. The workers went on strike. How much did that cost the company?
Why doesn't Dr. Pepper Snapple Group just send their apples to China or Mexico to make our applesauce and cider? Because they know they couldn't make as much as they do right now even with the extra $1.50/hr in labor.
Until CEO pay is addressed, we will continue on this downward spiral for the worker. All the while the corporations and those that lead them keep squirreling their money away in yachts, mansions and toys. -saw-