Article August 12, 2002 Issue

A greater equity for the US

By Bea Roegge Contributing Editor

Today In The United States there is an immense disparity between the money corporate executives and the rest of the workforce receive. Business Week shocked the country last year when it reported that "CEO pay has sky-rocketed by 434 percent since 1991 while the average worker's pay rose by 34 percent." Then came another astounding statistic that continues to reverberate throughout the country: "In 2000, the average CEO salary was 531 times that of the blue-collar worker" (April 9, 2001).

Common sense says one person's work cannot be 531 times more valuable than someone else's. The contrast between high salaries with stock options and the minimum wage could not be much more striking; yet the question arises, Can even dramatic raises in the minimum wage and legislation regarding stock options alone begin to bridge the gap between the recompense different workers receive?

If only the profit motive is in control, work may be sent to countries where there is no minimum wage. With only the bottom line calling the shots, CEOs, under the pressure of quarterly earnings reports, will still be tempted to undervalue workers and indulge personal greed.