Happy CEO Day

 Sure, it's called Labor Day, but that is a crock of shit....

Labor Day was created to "... honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United States."

To which one must laugh until they cry. Labor Day is a farce as unions have been busted, pay hasn't kept up with inflation and people demanding more pay are ostracized. through deft propaganda, unions have been demonized, banned and disbanded.

Let us look at the death of unions and what it means for the wage gap. 

In 1950 - 1965 with high union membership of the work force (around 35% of the workforce) For every the ratio for worker / CEO pay was $1 - $20.

In 1980, with union membership falling it was about $1 - $86

Then Reagan busted the unions, and congress and legislators passed right to work laws in states.

By 1990, the pay ration was about $1 - $351

In 2020, the ratio fore the top 300 companies was $1 - $640

In 2022 for the top 300 companies it was $1 - $670 (this was after 2 years of covid).

This CEO wage growth occurs in a two major ways, both direct compensation and in stock prices. Since many CEOs get much of their pay in stock, what happens is stock manipulation. Here is a quote from the Guardian Article where the figures are from:

The report found that two-thirds of low-wage corporations that cut worker pay in 2021 also spent billions inflating CEO pay through stock buybacks.

The biggest buyback firm was home improvement chain Lowe’s, which spent $13bn on share repurchases. That money could have given each of its 325,000 employees a $40,000 raise, according to IPS. Instead, median pay at the company fell 7.6% to $22,697.

So, Happy Labor Day - enjoy your day and then get back to work, pleb.