Is capitalism about to go away? It’s a possibility, according to Broken Capitalism, a series that the U.K. news powerhouse The Guardian is running. The series of articles includes Senator Cory Booker and others writing about the possibility that excessive CEO compensation and VIP bonuses in the face of workers not getting a living wage may topple capitalism if not addressed.
That’s a pretty bold statement, but in this era of #MeToo, people are just as bold, empowered to speak out about not just sexual harassment but discrimination, inequality, and other forms of unfairness in the workplace. To borrow the oft-quoted line from the movie Network, people are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.
Pay inequity has been all over the headlines lately, with companies complaining about raising the minimum wage while titans like Amazon try to shame them into it by voluntarily hiking their minimum hourly wage to $15 and challenging other companies to outdo them. Bank of America took that bet last month and raised it, hiking their minimum wage to $20 per hour.
But not everyone is climbing onto that bandwagon just yet. And in companies where CEOs are bringing home millions while workers can’t make ends meet on minimum wage, Booker sees a powder keg.
He brings the point home with one example: “Every day Carol Ruiz wakes up at 3:30 a.m. and goes to an airline catering service at Newark airport, where she helps prepare the food carts that flight attendants push up and down the aisle. At the end of her 40-hour week she takes home $345. The average airline CEO makes that amount in about 20 minutes.”
In this era, and in this economy, that’s just not going to fly (pardon the pun) anymore. In the U.S., corporate profits are at 80-year highs, yet, according to Pew Research, wages for the lowest-income workers have barely risen in four decades.
Abigail Disney, granddaughter of the Disney co-founder, spoke out recently about just this issue within her family’s own empire. Disney CEO Bob Iger made $65 million last year, which, Abigail pointed out, was more than 1,400 times the median pay of the average Disney worker. She believes that situation is “absurd,” especially considering the fact that those front-line workers in the parks are the ones making them the Happiest Place on Earth.
“Anyone who contributes to the success of a profitable company and who works full time to do so should not go hungry, should not ration insulin and should not have to sleep in a car,” she wrote.
Amen, Abigail. We’ll be watching this issue.
