«CEOs gave themselves 40% pay increases in the last four years,» United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain said
Forty percent.
It’s a figure that United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain cited repeatedly in the run-up to the union’s historic strike against the Big Three U.S. car manufacturers as he called attention to the exorbitant compensation of the companies’ top executives.
Over the past four years, the CEOs of General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis have seen their total pay jump by 40% while the wages of the companies’ ordinary employees have risen by just 6%. The Economic Policy Institute observed earlier this week that autoworker wages across the U.S. have fallen by 19.3% since 2008.
Last year, the CEOs of the Big Three automakers received staggering pay packages, fueling workers’ ongoing push for better wages and benefits. Ford’s Jim Farley took home around $21 million, Stellantis’ Carlos Tavares pocketed nearly $25 million, and General Motors’ Mary Barra—the highest-paid of the group—brought in roughly $29 million.
Barra has received more than $200 million in compensation since becoming GM’s CEO in 2014.
«We’ve went backwards in the last 16 years—backwards—while the CEOs gave themselves 40% pay increases in the last four years alone,» Fain said from a picket line in Michigan early Friday. «And they want to call us greedy.»
«UAW members see the CEO pay disparity as a measurement of how they are undervalued.»
The contrast between CEO and worker pay at the large, profitable automakers is striking.
