Thanks to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, shareholders gained access to new information in 2018. Companies must now disclose the ratio of pay between the CEO and the company’s median employee, shining a brighter light on how high CEO pay has become. This new information can also be used in other ways, as the city of Portland, Oregon demonstrates, being the first to introduce a corporation tax rate based on this ratio.

The AFL-CIO has been tracking these ratios as they appear in company proxy statements. The average of these CEO pay to median worker pay ratios as of Sep. 5, 2018 was approximately 273:1. This contrasts sharply with around the world as reported in a BBC article. In the United Kingdom — the only other non-U.S. country besides India where CEOs make more than 200 times their employees — the ratio is estimated at 201:1. In the Netherlands the ratio is 171:1; in Switzerland it is 152:1. In Germany, where workers are represented on boards of directors, it is 136:1.

Source: As You Sow