Clinton Misuses Stat on CEO Pay

[oberliner]

Hillary Clinton said the “average American CEO” makes 300 times more than the typical worker, but she was referring to a study that looked at pay disparity between CEOs and average workers only at the top 350 companies — a fraction of the 246,240 chief executives in the U.S.

Clinton is a repeat offender on this statistic. Our colleagues at the Washington Post Fact Checker dinged Clinton in April when she said, “There’s something wrong when CEOs make 300 times more than the American worker.” And the Wall Street Journal noted that two days earlier, Clinton had made the even less defensible claim — similar to the one we are fact-checking — that “the average CEO makes about 300 times what the average worker makes.”

But Clinton still hasn’t amended the talking point.

http://www.factcheck.org/2015/05/clinton-misuses-stat-on-ceo-pay/

[DURHAM D]

1. So, do you think that CEOs compensation should not

be targeted by Democrats?

[oberliner]

2. Just make sure you have the facts right

I definitely support her bringing up this issue.

[DURHAM D]

3. You think the Annenberg center should be the

supreme fact checker?

[oberliner]

4. No

But as the Fact Check site notes:

"Clinton could easily amend this talking point by referring to CEOs at “top” American firms, or some similar qualifier."

Seems like an easy fix.

[Thinkingabout]

5. Let's see, it is 295.9 times, yep, in my book that is "about 300 times" more.

Why would this even be a headline, are we going to split hairs over less than 5%?
Some are getting desperate.

[Starry Messenger]

6. It's over 300 times more.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryndill/2014/04/15/report-ceos-earn-331-times-as-much-as-average-workers-774-times-as-much-as-minimum-wage-earners/

With CEO compensation analysis season in full swing, the AFL-CIO released data this morning stating that American CEOs in 2013 earned an average of $11.7 million–an eye-popping 331 times the average worker’s $35,293.

Though down from 2012?s 354-to-1 CEO-to-worker pay ratio, the multiple more than doubles when compared to minimum wage workers; the average CEO in 2013 out-earned this group 774 times over.

The data was released as part of AFL-CIO PayWatch 2014, which focuses on summary compensation and highlights worker narratives from five companies– including Wal-Mart, Darden Restaurants, and T-Mobile– known for low worker wages and high executive compensation.

Information is further broken into categories including compensation by industry and state. As of April 2014, Michigan, Nebraska, and Rhode Island have the greatest CEO to minimum wage worker pay ratios, with New York and Colorado following close behind.

Data used to calculate average worker compensation was based on BLS information for production and nonsupervisory employees.

<snip>

Maybe FactCheck started outsourcing?

[oberliner]

7. Interesting

Maybe send this info to them and see what response you get, if any.

I've always thought Fact Check was a pretty fair and reasonable source.

[salib]

9. It reflects just how unimportant their objection is.

The top 350 companies are likely the top 350 employers. This, it could easily account for a significant percentage of the entire employment economy. Thus, what Mrs. Clinton is saying is indeed correct in intention and basically correct in fact when the average is looked at for the entire economy. Instead, the objection hints at the idea that a 350 is a small number of total companies. Yet, that is the wrong stat to count and thus is nearly irrelevant, and certainly not especially important as a distinction.

[WDIM]

8. Even if it is just the top 350 companies.

The statistic is crazy.

Upper management works the least and gets paid the most for being borned in the right family and going to the right schools. The glass ceiling applies to more than just minorities now. If you dont look a right way or talk a right way or go to the right school unless you start your own business you have little hope of reaching even upper middle class.

Upward mobility is at an all time low. The CEO is no more valuable to the company then the janitorial staff. Think about it if the janitorial staff stopped. Or even just the little worker bees. It is the workers at the bottom that are the most important to any company yet we pay the least important people the most.

[Travis_0004]

10. If a janitor quit, he would be replaced, and most people probably wouldn't notice.

When CEO's make poor decisions, there can be layoffs of thousands of employees, so to say that CEO's are the same importantance as a janitor is just stupid.


I worked at Lowes (my last job at a major company). The CEO made 14 million. Lowes has 265,000 employees. If the CEO agreed to work for free, and to split that money among all employees, I would have received a pay raise of about 2.5 cents an hour, or 1.00 per week.

I'm not saying CEO pay is not out of control, but I don't see it as the cause of inequality in America.