What do Starbucks, Home Depot, Walmart, Lowe's and Amazon have in common?

CEOs Are Getting Richer. Everyone Else Is Falling Behind.

By Sarah Anderson 

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 with the U.S. inflation rate.

CEOs are in effect getting richer while their workers fall further and further behind.

Grocery Chains Are Passing Trump' National Sales Tax on to US Consumers With Higher Prices

Tariffs are hitting grocery shelves while Trump is in denial

Stephen Prager for Common Dreams

As leading grocery chains increase prices on essentials, they are blaming Donald Trump's tariffs for raising the cost of living for households across the country.

According to the Consumer Price Index, the price of food has increased by 3% in the past year, with meats, poultry, fish, and eggs getting 5.6% more expensive from June 2024 to June 2025.

In a poll published this month by the Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center, 90% of Americans reported that they considered the cost of groceries a source of stress, with 53% describing it as a "major" source of stress.

In earnings calls and public statements, executives of many of America's largest and most profitable grocery retailers are citing Trump's tariffs as justification for passing on the costs to consumers, according to a new report released on Tuesday by Accountable.US.

From that radical left-wing magazine Forbes

In a first-quarter earnings call in May, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said that while the company was better positioned than others to absorb the cost of tariffs, they would still "result in higher prices" for consumers. 

Since then, some grocery items at America's largest retailer have shown 40% hikes that have outraged consumers, fueling calls for a boycott.

On another call, McMillon said, "We've continued to see our costs increase each week, which we expect will continue into the third and fourth quarters."

"Trump's tariffs are making groceries more expensive," said Accountable.US. "Everyday Americans pay the cost while corporations and the wealthy profit."

Costco's chief financial officer, Gary Millerchip, told shareholders in May that the company "saw inflation as a result of tariffs because we import certain fresh items from Central and South America."

Support for Labor Unions Near Historic High as Trump Trashes Working Class

As Trump and Republican Congress pummel unions, the more people rise in support

Jon Queally for Common Dreams

Winning the long, tough strike at Butler Hospital showed
what strong unions can do

A new poll reveals that Americans continue to support organized labor at historic levels, even as the Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress take a battering ram to union rights and the nation's working class.

Gallup's annual survey, released Thursday, shows more than two-thirds of people in the US (68%) approve of labor unions and the economic security and prosperity they provide working families. The popular support matches record-high numbers of recent years after a long decline from the 1960s through the early 2000s.

As Gallup notes:

When Gallup first measured Americans’ ratings of labor unions in 1936, 72% approved. Approval reached the record high, 75%, in 1953 and 1957 and ranged between 63% and 73% from 1958 through 1967. Then, from 1972 through 2016, approval was lower, with few readings over 60%, including the 48% all-time low recorded in 2009. This was the only time approval fell below the majority level. Since 2017, approval has been above 60%, the longest period at this level since the 1960s.