Just because the exec who runs your company makes more money than you do doesn’t mean you’re a worthless peon who should go on food stamps. Or maybe not. It’s bad enough that average S&P 500 CEOs make more than 200 times in compensation than the median income of their workers. If the median worker income is $50,000, that’s a mere $10 million a year—not including stock, long-term incentive plans, massive amounts of perks, etc.
But wait. There’s more. That 200-to-1 ratio is chicken feed compared with unabashedly greedy CEOs who are the real high rollers. The Glassdoor Economic Research team analyzed data from S&P 500 companies to determine the highest and lowest ratios of CEO to worker pay. The results are astounding.
The highest CEO pay was 1,951 greater than the median pay of his workers. That dubious achievement belongs to David M. Zaslav, CEO of Discovery Communications, who made $156,077,912 last year. Assuming Zaslav works 60 hours a week with no vacation (unlikely), his hourly pay would be $52,026.
