The push to penalise big corporations with huge pay gaps - BBC Worklife
The head of McDonald’s earns a whopping 1,939 times more than the company’s median worker. At Facebook, it’s 94 times more. And these aren’t the most extreme examples.
Many people feel that the gap between a company’s highest and median pay, known as its pay ratio, shouldn’t be sky high – an opinion that’s held around the world and across ideological lines. Increasingly, government officials are taking notice, and subsequently proposing taxes on companies that maintain pay ratios over a certain threshold.
These measures, which have been increasing in the past few years, take aim at inequality, and generate revenue to fund vital public services. They’re also an uplifting way for people to feel like change is in motion. But despite the upsides, some people are warning that these taxes could have worrying effects.
In 2019, among the 500 largest companies listed on one of the US stock exchanges, the average gap between CEO and median worker pay was 264:1.
