Public policy can mitigate disparities in pay and power
CEOs at 25 major corporate employers in Ohio were paid 254 times as much as their typical worker in 2024, with a median pay of $15,631,028 for the CEOs, compared to $60,917 in annual pay for their typical worker. The top 10 employers reported an even more alarming CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio of 324-to-1, and a significantly lower typical worker pay of $52,996.
These are among the findings of Policy Matters Ohio’s annual report on CEO pay, released today. The report also details the ways executives benefit from stock buybacks, long considered market manipulation until they were legalized in 1982. “Buybacks primarily enrich wealthy shareholders and executives rather than benefiting workers or the broader economy,” said Hannah Halbert, Policy Matters Executive Director and co-author of the report. “When corporations allocate billions to buy up their own stock, they divert funds from other uses like increasing employee wages and benefits, capital spending, safety and research, or increasing workforce training.”
The report highlights $10 billion in buybacks by Norfolk Southern in the four years leading up to the catastrophic derailment of one of its trains in East Palestine. “That’s $3 billion more than they spent on equipment upgrades and long-term investments,” Halbert noted, adding that then-CEO Alan Shaw received a 37% increase in his compensation following the incident.
“Norfolk Southern is an example of how corporate executives benefit from cozy relationships with their boards of directors. The boards have power to decide whether to spend on buybacks — which goose the price of shares they themselves own — or on the kinds of investments that can prevent disasters like the one that is still unfolding in East Palestine.”
The report also provides case studies in how workers and their allies can organize to influence corporate shareholders. “Ohioans have options for pushing back against corporations that neglect their responsibility to the people of our state,” Halbert said. “As always, we can advocate for state leaders to stand up for working Ohioans with public policy that puts people first. And we can engage in the kind of shareholder activism we’ve seen get traction against corporations like Starbucks and Dollar General.”
Halbert concluded, “Outrageous CEO pay is a symptom of a much broader issue: Lax public policies that give corporations nearly limitless power to extract wealth from Ohio workers and communities without regard for the harm they do. Ohioans deserve state leaders willing to check these corporations’ power by standing up for working people.”