An Astounding Factlet
The CEO of Oracle is paid $78 million dollars a year–mostly in no or low-tax earnings. That translates to $37,500.00/hr assuming he works 52 weeks a year and 40/hrs a week. More if he gets vacations. (Not to mention other assets that Mr. Ellison possesses, amounting to about $50 billion). To make matters more complicated we have gotten accustomed to ways of “measuring” the economy so that this counts as a positive.
There is NO WAY democracy can flourish when the top 100 or so CEOs are each richer than any of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs, Chinese emperors, or Marie Antoinette and family. Especially with recent court ruling about spending on elections. But then, those past figures weren’t pretending to lead the forces of freedom and democracy.
$37,000 (plus) dollars an hour. It’s unimaginable. But we’re told that without such monies, Mr. Ellison wouldn’t be doing as well for his beloved Oracle. Of the top 100 CEOs, the average is a mere $13 million annually ($6,250.00/hr) –hardly worth mentioning. Of course, there’s no evidence that their lower rate of pay has cost their companies profits.
Yet, these same CEO’s lead the charge against raising the minimum wage–from $7.50 to $10 an hour (to almost what Mr. Ellison makes per second). Somehow, by their logic, a handful of individuals controlling most of the wealth and resources of the country is not bad for the economy. But requiring them to pay the poorest of our workers enough to feed their families, much less buy the consumer goods required to keep an economy going will be bad for “the economy,” by their logic.
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Deborah Meier on Education 