Chief executives earn 254 more than employees

Elon Musk is paid 40,668 times more than the average Tesla employee, and Warren Buffett earns seven times as much as the average Berkshire Hathaway worker.

This is shown by a report from the Securities and Exchange Commission, Poslovni Dnevnik writes.

The SEC mandated American companies to disclose data on the salaries of their chief executives. This is a legacy of the Dodd-Frank Act, which attempted to regulate executive pay after the crisis. At the beginning of the election season, these data attract even more attention from labor unions, activists and politicians, analysts say.

As Sarah Anderson, director of the global economy project at the Institute for Policy Studies, said for Financial Times, politicians know that this is an issue that strikes a chord with people across the political spectrum. She added that a 2016 Stanford poll found majorities of Democrats and Republicans favored capping executive pay.

The data for the past year collected by Equilar from the 100 companies with the biggest income show that the average salary of executives was 254 times higher than that of employees.

This is a considerable growth compared to the previous year, when the ratio was 235:1, though it has to be noted that a third of the companies didn't disclose the data at the time. Of the 100 executives, 11 earn over 1,000 times more than the average employee.

The Equilar list is topped by Oracle's chief executives, Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, with USD 108 million each. Oracle, however, said these compensations were “atypically high”, as they included five years of stock option grants.

Adjusted, the ratio would lower from 1,205:1 to 282:1, the company said.

IPS Washington

Tesla Motors United States

Oracle Corporation SAD

Institute for Policy Studies

Tesla

Oracle

Safra Catz

Mark Hurd

Warren Buffett

Elon Musk

Securities and Exchange Commission

SEC

Equilar

Berkshire Hathaway

Sarah Anderson

chief executive pay

Dodd Frank Act