Working poor need a big bonus, too

BY MICHAEL FISHMAN

Published: December 17, 2006

The shocking news of $16.5 billion in overall compensation for Goldman Sachs executives this year raises troubling questions that a growing number of Americans have about corporate greed - how much is enough?

Calculating the difference between CEO compensation and what millions of hardworking Americans get paid has become a tall order - one for a banker.

But while bankers are off spending their year-end windfalls, civic-minded organizations like the Economic Policy Institute get to work and crank out some telling numbers. For instance, average CEO pay in 2005 was 821 times greater than a minimum-wage earner's. In 1978, the average CEO earned 78 times more than a person working for minimum wage.

Last year, New York-based JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon made more than $22 million. In contrast, Bobby Owens, a security officer charged with standing guard at JPMorgan's offices in Metrotech Center in Brooklyn gets paid $8.43 an hour.

As one of the 1.8 million New Yorkers - or one out of every five New York City residents - living at or below the poverty line, Owens is, unfortunately, no exception.

Even more disturbing, Owens is among the ranks of the "working poor." According to Mayor Bloomberg's own poverty commission, 42% of families below the poverty line in 2005 included a full-time worker - up from 24% in 2000. The federal poverty guideline is an annual income of $15,735 for one adult with two dependents. No one can live on wages that low, especially in New York. And supporting a family on that wage is out of the question.

The ever-widening disparity between the very wealthy and the rest of us is a sour note to end this year on. But unless we turn this alarm into action, by pressing our government and business leaders to narrow the income gap, next year's holiday season could be a little short on cheer.

Fishman is president of SEIU Local 32BJ.