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Taking the top 1% would certainly lower the gap, which shows had misleading or dishonest this invalid comparison is. Also note mean wage is also not total comp

Taking the top 1% would certainly lower the gap, which shows had misleading or dishonest this invalid comparison is. Also note mean wage is also not total compensation by a long shot. The actual benefits are tracked by BLS total compensation, or better yet, BLS cost to employ, which has grown a lot of the past few decades. The biggest tax breaks (or as people like to call them when it suits them, tax giveaways or tax loopholes) give more to the poor and middle class than all the tax breaks enjoyed by all companies combined: mortgage deduction, 401k style deferred taxes, and employer healthcare deduction, all give massive breaks the majority of which accrues to the poor and middle, yet this also gets ignored in this discussion. No matter how you want to slice it comparing the top 500 out of 250K to all is simply bad stats, as bas as claiming the top 500 wage employees to all CEOs would show every day earners have a gap over CEOs. And it's simply designed to create outrage - that CEO taking less pay is not going to suddenly accrue to the workers. So no matter how you want to slice it, it's completely bad stats.

cycomanic 1y ago
Nobody is talking about the leader of some charity in the middle of Kansas when saying CEO pay (even though they are technically a CEO). You also ignore the main part of my comment that the majority (~70%) of CEO compensation is stock so not included in wage comparisons. I'm also not sure in what world you live, but the effective tax rates for most of the wealthiest are effectively 0 [1] , compare that to the tax rate of an average wage earner. The final point is that ratio of CEO pay to average salary pay has skyrocketed [2] . How do you explain that away? [1] https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trov... [2] https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2023/ https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2023/
- SideQuark 1y ago
  The first article ludicrously confuses income (taxable) with wealth (not taxable) and unrealized gains (not taxable). It mixes cherry picking with proper data. I already pointed out the answer to your "how do you explain..." question above. If you want to argue about taxes take the time to understand them.

cycomanic 1y ago

Nobody is talking about the leader of some charity in the middle of Kansas when saying CEO pay (even though they are technically a CEO). You also ignore the main part of my comment that the majority (~70%) of CEO compensation is stock so not included in wage comparisons. I'm also not sure in what world you live, but the effective tax rates for most of the wealthiest are effectively 0 [1] , compare that to the tax rate of an average wage earner. The final point is that ratio of CEO pay to average salary pay has skyrocketed [2] . How do you explain that away? [1] https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trov... [2] https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2023/ https://www.epi.org/publication/ceo-pay-in-2023/

SideQuark 1y ago
The first article ludicrously confuses income (taxable) with wealth (not taxable) and unrealized gains (not taxable). It mixes cherry picking with proper data. I already pointed out the answer to your "how do you explain..." question above. If you want to argue about taxes take the time to understand them.