Representative Keith Ellison Releases a Study Revealing How Much Money CEOs Really Make

A report prepared by the staff of Representative Keith Ellison, released on Wednesday, reveals U.S. CEOs get paid 339 times more than their employees. Ellison is the U.S. representative for Minnesota’s 5th congressional district and the Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Convention.

Ellison was a strong supporter of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, passed during the Obama administration as a response to the financial crises. The Act states its goal is to “promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system.” According to The Hill, the act “required U.S. publicly held corporations to disclose how much their CEOs make in comparison to the median salary of other workers.” The act ultimately resulted in backlash against major companies, as well as President Trump, who began reviewing the financial regulations created by the act in February of 2017. In March of 2018, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act passed as a bill that “rolls back some of Dodd-Frank’s financial regulations and widens existing loopholes,” per Vox.

Ellison’s report was released just a few months after the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act passed, and is titled “Rewarding or Hoarding? An Examination of Pay Ratios Revealed by Dodd-Frank.” The report begins with a question to every American citizen who isn’t in the wealthy one percent: “If your boss made your annual salary in less than a single day, how would you feel? Demoralized? Disgusted? Many Americans are now learning how pay is shared (or not).” The 26-page report that follows the executive summary is full of pay information for every CEO and their employees for companies such as McDonald’s, Gap, Hanes Brands, Walmart, Lowes and so on. The information is broken down by CEO pay, median worker pay, reported ratio, employees and industry.

According to The Hill’s analysis, the report reveals that in “188 out of the 225 companies analyzed, a single CEO’s salary could be used to pay more than 100 workers,” and “219 of the 225 companies, an average employee would need to work for more than 45 years to make what their CEO makes in one year.” Overall, this report proves the Dodd-Frank act supplies transparent facts to American citizens who answer to a CEO who makes more money in a year than they will probably make in their lifetime. The report is a well-organized and cohesive argument as to why the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act should not be restricted or reformed, although the reform that attempts to conceal this information from American employees isn’t surprising, coming from the Trump administration. After all, Trump is the wealthy one percent—or at least he claims to be.