Tax Excessive CEO Pay
3 December 2025
I am a strong advocate of capitalism. Over the past 50 years, I’ve launched numerous small businesses in IT, law, medicine and medical publishing. Some were solo ventures; others grew to as many as 26 employees. I’ve felt the pressure of trying to make payroll, gone without pay myself and in the early years even borrowed money from my parents to keep things going.
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, my business posted its first loss in many years, and I truly questioned whether things would ever rebound.
Despite the challenges, my faith in capitalism and the entrepreneurial spirit remains strong. What I do not support is the pervasive greed that has taken hold across corporate America.
That’s why I support the Patriotic Millionaires in their efforts to rein in excessive CEO compensation, and I encourage you to get involved as well.
In 2024, the average CEO at the Low-Wage 100 received a pay package worth $17.2 million. Meanwhile, the average median worker pay at these companies was $35,570. CEOs are stealing wages so they can buy another yacht, mansion, and private jet while working people have to stretch their dollars even further as the cost of living skyrockets.
. . .
The CEO-worker pay ratio was widest at Starbucks in 2024, where it reached 6,666 to 1. Starbucks’ CEO received $95.8 million in compensation while the median Starbucks worker was paid $14,674. Rest of post.
If we want an economy that isn’t stacked in favor of the ultrawealthy, we need to act. Contacting your elected officials, something I’ve already done, is straightforward (click here), and I encourage you to do it too. It’s easier than you might think and far more effective than venting on social media.
My political blog focuses on what you can or should do to make the world a better place and yourself a better person. I have another blog on Cancer and Medicine.
I read all your comments (except hate speech) and try to respond briefly, although I can’t keep up a long conversation.
The index to my political essays since 5 November 2024 is here.
What you can do today:
Follow me at:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nat-pernick-8967765
Threads or Instagram: npernickmich
BlueSky: natpernick.bsky.social
Email me at Nat@PathologyOutlines.com.
I also publish Notes at https://substack.com/note. Subscribers will automatically see my notes.
Nat, you unmistakably diverge from being a “strong advocate of capitalism” when you oppose the market and the market alone deciding that average CEO should make 500 times as much as their average employee. This divergence is in my view correct, and shows that you have a sense of what is right and just that has nothing to do with capitalism, and is (or should be) more powerful than the free market in what determines the economic structure of society than capitalism is. Good for you! I would only remark that it’s misleading for you to assert so strongly that you are an advocate for capitalism - you are clearly more, much more, an advocate for justice and fairness, since you think those ideals should be allowed to limit and constrain capitalism. Again, good for you! I would infer from my sense of what kind of person you are that you do not favor the philosophy of Ayn Rand (for example), but rather hold such ideas in disfavor, perhaps even in contempt.