Search News
For the Media
For media inquiries, call CWA Communications at 202-434-1168 or email comms@cwa-union.org. To read about CWA Members, Leadership or Industries, visit our About page.
Winners and Losers - You Decide
| Corporations and CEOs | The Wealthy | The Rest of Us | |
| INCOME: | CEOs earn 343 times the median workers’ pay. It’s the largest pay gap in the world. | The average income for the top 1 percent of U.S. households rose more than 230 percent in the past 30 years. That’s an increase of nearly 8 percent a year. | Middle class incomes have grown by just $300 a year over the past 30 years. From 2000 to 2007, median household income fell by $300. |
| TAXES: | Many profitable corporations, including Exxon Mobil, Bank of America, Chevron, Goldman Sachs and GE, paid no taxes for 2009. Some even got a tax rebate. | More than half of the tax relief passed by Congress in 2001 went to families earning more than $1,000,000 a year. Over the ten-year program, $477 billion went to the richest 1 percent of Americans | Average first year tax cut for taxpayers making $50,000 or less was $11. The average first year tax cut for those making $50,000-$100,000 was $77. |
| RETIREMENT: | CEOs negotiate generous employment agreements for themselves that include pensions and health care coverage for life. | The wealthy rely on generous pensions and investments. | Social Security is the major source of income for 54 percent of retirees. The average Social Security benefit for a retired worker is $14,154. |
| JOBS: | In 2009: U.S. corporations created 2 million jobs overseas and cut 3 million jobs in the United States. |