(Iowa News Service) – A new report from the American Federation of Labor shows the pay gap between C-E-Os and their workers continues to widen. Iowa has among the biggest disparities in the nation. The A-F-L’s report shows companies’ production costs were down 3-percent in 2023, but consumer prices were up 3-percent. Iowa Federation of Labor President Charlie Wishman says company C-E-O profits are up 6-percent, even as more families struggle to keep up with a rising cost of living. Wishman says the gap between the C-E-O and an average worker at a Casey’s General Store in Iowa is among the highest in the nation.

Wishman says the Casey’s C-E-O-to-employee wage gap has grown from about 40 to 1 in the 1980s. Casey’s says it reviews its salary and bonus structure yearly to be sure they are competitive. Nationwide, the report says it would take more than five career lifetimes for a worker to earn what the average C-E-O is paid in one year.

The A-F-L report lists several examples of huge corporate profit increases, including a 66-percent hike in the former Starbucks C-E-O’s pay. Securities and Exchange Commission documents show Laxman Narasimhan’s compensation jumped from 8-point-8 million dollars in 2022 to 14-point-6 million in 2023. Wishman says for the average Iowan, numbers like these are hard to stomach.

In the Starbucks example, the A-F-L report shows the cost of a medium coffee at the chain has risen by 20-percent in some locations, and the company has doubled the number of points required to qualify for rewards despite its overall production costs going down.