Letters: CEO pay vs. worker wages

Re “JPMorgan pays its CEO $20 million,” Business, Jan. 25

According to the AFL-CIO, the current ratio of CEO to average worker income is more than 350 to 1; in 1980, it was 42 to 1. Stock options as executive bonuses have been the key driver of that difference, with top executives throttling employee wages to boost stock prices.

To restore balance, we need to encourage more appropriate corporate revenue sharing with employees by tying corporate median wage ratios to tax rates (with heavy disincentives for highly disparate ratios) and to regulate executive bonus structures to remove incentives for wage suppression and stock manipulation.

Republicans would probably have a cow, but think of it this way: Rather than using government to tax the rich to give food stamps to the working poor, why not drive down the need for food stamps and government “redistribution” by ensuring equitable wage compensation by our captains of industry in the first place?

Linda Kranen

Carlsbad

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