Dear John,

The gap between CEO pay and average worker pay is getting more outrageous year after year.

Now a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) shows that of 300 corporations with a staggering 670 to 1 gap between CEO pay and a typical worker in 2021, 40% are federal contractors.^[1]

That’s right, that means we -- you and I -- are unwittingly enabling these extreme pay gaps between CEOs and low-wage earning workers with our tax dollars.

This has to stop. Fortunately, President Biden doesn’t need to wait for Congress to take meaningful action to change it. He can stop it with the stroke of a pen.

Using Executive Action, President Biden has already ordered federal contractors to pay at least $15 per hour. Now he must go further to force these companies to narrow the wage gap and rein in CEO pay.

The IPS report highlights the example of Maximus, a company that, through federal contracts, services student loans and operates Obamacare and Medicare call centers.

Maximus paid CEO Bruce Caswell $7.9 million in 2021. That’s 208 times the firm’s median annual paycheck.

At more than a third of the low-wage paying companies exposed in the report, the median worker pay did not even keep pace with inflation in 2021.

Imagine how much worse the gap is now as corporate greed and other factors continue to increase inflation to dangerous levels for workers across the country.

We must never forget that extreme pay gaps widen gender and racial disparities. Women and people of color make up a disproportionately large share of today’s low-wage workers and a tiny share of corporate leaders. In 2021, while just 8% of CEOs were women, less than 1% of Fortune 500 corporations were led by a Black CEOs.

It’s not like these companies can’t afford to pay more.

They spent a combined $37 billion last year on stock buybacks, a process that actually inflates their CEO pay at the expense of investments in workers. Every dollar spent on stock buybacks is a dollar that's not spent improving working conditions, benefits, or wages.

Taxpayer money simply should not increase the racial wealth gap and fund excessive CEO pay at the expense of workers. The president can fix this. Sign and send your message to President Biden now.

I’ve been talking a lot about what it will take for Democrats to win the midterm elections and retain control of Congress. Polling from May showed that 87% of Americans view the growing gap between CEO and worker pay as a problem for the nation.^[2]

This is exactly the kind of popular and public action the president can take without having to get permission from Senators Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema. It’s time for President Biden to rein in CEO pay.

Thanks for joining us in this fight,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action

^{[1] Executive Excess 2022, Institute for Policy Studies Report
[2] The JUST Report: Americans Not Divided on Addressing the CEO to Worker Pay Gap, JUST Capital Report}