How can anyone expect inflation to go down when the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies averaged a 13% pay increase in 2023? Their earnings are almost 200 times what their median employee earned, whose wages rose only 4.1%, according to the Labor Department. From the 1950s until the 1980s, CEOs of large publicly traded companies made about 40 to 50 times the average worker’s pay (according to AFLCIO.org/executive-paywatch-0).

This excessive executive compensation squeezes a company’s bottom line already impacted by supply chain breakdowns and pent up demand. So prices stay high, contributing to inflation, and workers’ wages stagnate or rise only slightly, increasing inflation’s effect on the consumer. No wonder so many Americans are angry, frustrated and disappointed in the economy.

Mary Drake

Mystic