American CEO Pay Has Risen 997 Percent Since 1978, Study Reveals

The study, conducted by progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute, also reveals that CEO pay has risen an unbelievable 997% since 1978, whereas employee pay has only risen 10.9% in the same timeframe.

This will not be the first time someone has brought attention to the staggering wage disparity between executives and employees, nor will it be the last.

The truth is that there are executives and owners who disagree with the drastic wage difference. While they may not all understand what it is like trying to live off $40,000, some CEOs understand the struggle enough to do something about it.

Two months ago, Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, raised the annual salaries of his lowest paid clerks, salesmen and customer service reps from $48,000 to $70,000.

Price is part of the growing effort to rectify the imbalance between executive and employee annual pay. Other empathetic CEOs include Elon Musk of Tesla, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, who all, now, take $0 annual paid salary.

Concerning his decision to accept a salary based on the yearly profits of American Airlines, rather than one that is set, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker recently said in a letter to his employees:

However, while these CEO billionaires’ efforts to share their companies’ revenue fairly are appreciated, they are not enough. America, currently, has highest level of inequality of income compared to any other country, according to the EPI study. Unless more executives and owners start adopting the mindset of Parker and Price, the wage disparity will only preserve the staggering disproportion.