The American economy overall is ferociously unequal, but some sectors are more unequal than others. A new study from the left-leaning think tank Demos looked at CEO-to-worker compensation ratios across the labor force in an attempt to determine where inequality is most concentrated. The answer probably won’t surprise you.
That’s right: The Accommodation and Food Services sector, as it is called by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “is the most unequal sector in the American economy, driven by extreme inequality within the fast food industry,” according to Demos policy analyst Catherine Ruetschlin. In 2012, the average fast food CEO made 1,200 times what the average fast food employee made, according to Ruetschlin’s report.
Fast food workers are among the most poorly compensated workers in the United States, earning an average of $9.09 per hour. Fast food CEOs, on the other hand, earned an average of $23.8 million in 2013.
Read the report: Fast Food Failure: How CEO-to-Worker Pay Disparity Undermines the Industry and the Overall Economy
