The data is from a major union, and, therefore, may have a bias against chief executives. Numbers can be bent.
The AFL-CIO reports that CEO pay rose 14% last year:
According to data released by the AFL-CIO today, CEOs of S&P 500 Index companies received an average of $12.9 million in pay in 2011 – a 14 percent raise. The ratio of CEO to worker pay is now 380 to 1. The newly designed Executive PayWatch, a searchable online database, provides direct comparison of top CEO pay to average wages of workers, such as a nurse, teacher, firefighter and others.
The figure cannot be complete, since not all 2011 proxies for S&P 500 firms are in yet.
The union also tried to humilate public corporations that “hoarded” cash last year and fired workers. This list includes Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY), News Corp (NYSE: NWS), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Wellpoint (NYSE: WLP).
Douglas A. McIntyre
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