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Compare it to the past US CEO pay then. In the heyday of the American economic boom of the 1960s, the CEO-to-worker pay gap was an order of magnitude lower. What's a bit odd to me is how the social norms have shifted regarding this, to the point where average Americans defend it as just.

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Did you adjust for company size? I bet the average s&p 500 company is much larger than they were in the 60s. Doesn't seem strange or unjust to me that a ceo of a $1 trillion market cap company can demand higher pay than one for a $1 billion company.

> Did you adjust for company size? I bet the average s&p 500 company is much larger than they were in the 60s.

If you adjust for company size then you should adjust for inflation as well. I’d be interested in knowing for sure, but if I had to, I’d guess they’re 5-10x, not 1000x, bigger.

As another commenter mentioned, there’s a lot that goes into market cap. The adjusted PE is quite a bit higher than the 1960s, implying the market caps are overvalued by comparison, so I’m not sure market cap is a great proxy.

One other way to measure it is by worker productivity, which has also increased since the 1960s. Somehow those productivity gains are disproportionately hoovered up by management.

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