As the never-ending debate regarding income inequality remains at a gridlock, perhaps it’s time to shift our focus from an individual and consumer level, to a company level. As we can see from the first graph in the series of graphs below, the 90th percentile of the largest 500 companies have increased their market share dramatically. While we have seen a difference in wages between the 90th percentile and 25th percentile, as seen in the second graph, if we look at the third graph we can see there has not been such a jump among coworkers at these firms. As a result, someone at the “top of the food chain” in one company may have a pay package that looks drastically different from another executive level employee at another company. Because of this we see companies such as Apple with the flexibility to increase their shuttle-bus drivers’ pay by 25% or Facebook increase janitor pay to $15/hour. Now, employee wages in positions at these companies that are often publicized as being on the short-end of the income inequality spectrum, are actually comparable to many other professions.
November 23, 2015