And yet top executives seem to have little trouble finding enough to enrich themselves and wealthy shareholders. In 2021 and 2022, S&P 500 corporations spent record sums on stock buybacks, a maneuver that artificially inflates the value of a company’s stock — and CEOs’ stock-based pay.
All employees contribute to company profits. But instead of broadly sharing the wealth, companies are using a once-illegal form of market manipulation to make those at the top of the corporate ladder even richer.
This 29th annual Executive Excess report takes an in-depth look at the 100 S&P 500 corporations that had the lowest median worker pay levels in 2022, a group we’ve dubbed the “Low-Wage 100.” For each of these firms, we report the total compensation and personal stock holdings of CEOs, the CEO-worker pay gap, and the overall outlays for stock buybacks.
We also reveal how taxpayers are enriching ― through federal contracts ― the majority of the Low-Wage 100. And we conclude with the most comprehensive available policy menu for achieving a fair corporate compensation system.
The full report — complete with comprehensive findings, recommendations, and methodology, along with data for each of the 100 companies we studied — is available here. A summary follows.
Public outrage over executive excess is growing across the political spectrum. Policymakers have begun taking serious steps to respond. They include…