Thursday, July 23, 2009
Executives representing just 6% of the workforce in America receive more than one-third of all wages, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Social Security Administration data. Out of the $6.4 trillion in pay distributed in 2007, $2.1 trillion went to highly paid leaders, and this doesn’t even take into account stock options and other benefits they received.
On top of gobbling up a huge portion of salaries, executives are also contributing to the downfall of the Social Security. Because much of what executives earn is not subject to taxes that fund the retirement program, Social Security is losing out on potential funding that could keep it from being exhausted by 2037.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Pay of Top Earners Erodes Social Security (by Ellen E. Schultz, Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal Overstates High Earners’ Effect on Social Security Solvency (by Andrew Biggs, American Enterprise Institute)
Comments