CEOs now make almost 280 times what a typical American worker pulls in annually, according to a new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
But it’s not just disgruntled workers with stagnant wages – the group that many say has found a voice in Donald Trump – who are being left in the financial dust by the chief executives of U.S. corporations.
Related: The 25 Most Overpaid CEOs
Fat and happy CEOs are blowing past the top 0.1 percent of wage earners, too.
And according to data from the EPI, a left-leaning Washington think tank, there is no clear reason why CEO compensation at the nation’s largest companies has climbed by almost 941 percent since 1978. For example, that enormous leap does not correspond to the growth of the stock market during the same time period, which is up by 542.9 percent.
While the wages of the top 0.1 percent rose 320.5 percent from 1978-2014 – a figure the EPI calls “remarkable” in its own right – that growth is not even close to that of CEOs.
While many Americans have yet to recover from the financial crisis, CEOs have bounced back nicely, thank you, with pay up by 46.5 percent since 2009. CEOs at the largest U.S. corporations made an average of $15.5 million last year, the EPI says. And it expects the bosses will grab even more of the loot in 2016.
So for those looking to lay some blame for the ascendance of Trump, they might want to start in the corner office.
