MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In Tuesday’s Ransom Note: the rich getting richer. Tuesday we learned the 25 richest Americans --guys like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk-- pay very little --and sometimes nothing-- in federal income taxes. Propublica looked at IRS data, and today the New York Times published the findings. It found our richest executives paid just a fraction of their wealth in taxes by using loopholes in the tax code that only they and their accountants could love.
Checkout what's happening with executive salaries. In 1965, the average CEO made 21 times more than his or her average worker. In 1989, CEO compensation was 61 times more than the people who worked for them. In 2020, CEO pay is now at 320 times their average worker.
I'm not suggesting CEOs shouldn't be well paid. They work under incredible pressures and make tough decisions. But there's something wrong when last year the average CEO got a 14% raise, but the average worker had to work decades to see their pay go up the same.