The gap between CEO compensation and median worker pay at Starbucks hit 6,666 to 1 last year.

In other words, to make as much money as their CEO made in 2024, typical baristas would’ve had to start brewing macchiatos around the time humans first invented the wheel.

Starbucks is the worst offender, but jaw-dropping gaps are the norm among America’s leading low-wage corporations. CEOs of the 100 S&P 500 firms with the lowest median wages — a group I call the “Low-Wage 100” — have enjoyed skyrocketing pay over the past six years.

As a group, these CEOs now earn 632 times more than their median employees, I found in a new report for the Institute for Policy Studies . Their pay has risen nearly 35 percent since 2019 in absolute terms, while their median worker pay hasn’t even kept up wit

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