In its annual report on pay for chief executive officers, the AFL-CIO blames greedy corporate leadership for the country’s growing income inequality problem. But new data shows that eight of the top-10 highest-paid union presidents in America sit on the AFL-CIO executive council. And they rake in far more than the typical CEO.
The Center for Union Facts crunched the numbers from 2015 union filings, and discovered that 10 union presidents earned salaries of at least $416,000. Member dues fund these six-figure salaries, at a time when the median union worker made just over $50,000 last year.
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In contrast, the median CEO earned $117,000 in 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Union presidents also receive other compensation, including expense accounts and lavish benefits. Factor this in, and the top-paid union president last year brought home more than $693,000.
“Big Labor may change the subject, but the fact remains: Dozens of union bosses rake in cushy six-figure salaries on the workers’ dime,” says Richard Berman, executive director of the Center for Union Facts, a nonprofit that has been critical of unions and has compiled an extensive database on organized labor’s expenditures.
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AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the U.S., had not immediately responded to Heat Street’s request for comment.
