CEOs at major companies that suffered historic losses and fired hundreds of thousands of employees during the COVID-19 War got much richer in 2020, according to a report.
The New York Times reported that the heads of Boeing, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Hilton each earned over $20 million last year. Frank Del Rio, the chief executive at Norwegian, a company that furloughed 20 percent of its staff, watched his pay double to $36.4 million. Chris Nassetta, the head of Hilton, pulled in an eye-popping $55.9 million in 2020, despite a quarter of the corporate staff being laid off due to travel bans and virus fears.
The paper said even though employees at these companies faced unforeseen economic hardships, “the executives in charge were showered with riches.”
The Times pointed out that the people who benefited the most economically during the pandemic were technocrats. Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, saw his fortune increase by $21 billion in the last four months to $103 billion.
The paper said the shift is not isolated to 2020. The average CEO at a major company now earns more than 320 times what a typical worker pulls in, the report said. To put it in perspective, the ratio used to be 61 to 1 in 1989.
The NYT also reported that compensation grew for the typical worker by 14 percent while CEOs saw their compensation increase by 1,167 percent since 2019.
Robert Reich, the labor secretary under President Clinton, told The Times that compensation is a “logical consequence” for the total embrace of “shareholder capitalism,” which started in the 1980s with corporate raiders.
“The pay packages reflect soaring share prices, which in turn reflect, at least in part, the willingness if not eagerness of corporations to cut payrolls at the slightest provocation,” he told the paper.
The Times pointed out that other companies like Tenet Healthcare, a hospital chain, and AT&T furloughed and cut thousands of jobs, but Tenet pulled in a profit of nearly $400 million. John Stankey, the head of the phone giant, still earned $21 million.
The paper pointed to Disney and how even when executives pull in a fraction of what they’ve earned in previous years, they still can earn over $20 million. Disney laid off more than 28,000 employees at theme parks during the COVID-19 shutdowns, yet Robert Iger, who stepped down as chief executive and is now executive chairman, still earned $21 million.
TRENDPOST: When the COVID War was launched in 2020, The Trends Journal had forecast that small businesses would suffer the most, the “essential” Bigs would grow bigger, and the richest would get much richer. Indeed, Oxfam reported that the combined wealth of the world’s richest jumped by $540 billion last year.
TREND FORECAST: Our “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS 2.0” trend from December 2019, forecasting the global rise in anger directed at the 1 percent, was already spreading globally prior to 2020’s COVID War.
As the gap between the rich and poor widens, so, too, will the animosity between the “haves” and “have nots.” And as the Bigs keep getting bigger, income inequality will be a key platform in the formation of new political parties across the globe.
Gated communities will increase in popularity, and more private security will be hired by the haves who will be gangland targets.
