One of the contributing factors to the economic inequality in the U.S. today is the pay difference between differing job positions. According to Business Week, it generally takes the CEO of a major corporation just over half a day to make the same as their average workers make in a year. This gross difference has not always been so wide spread. The gap has been growing as corporate executives overcompensate themselves for a company loss and chip away at union organizations. The number of American workers unionized has dropped twenty percent over the last fifty years, making it more difficult to raise the minimum wage as the cost of living increases. In fact, if we take inflation into account, the minimum wage has actually dropped twenty-one percent since 1979. Bringing the argument full circle, CEO’s in 1980 made only forty-five times that of their average worker, compared to the five hundred times more they make today. Although the U.S. has always experienced some degree of economic inequality, the problem is obviously getting worse.
