McDonalds: Burgers, bacteria and market bombing


By Dr. Tim Sandle
DIGITAL JOURNAL
October 24, 2024

Delivery workers gather at a McDonald restaurant to pick up orders in Kyiv - Copyright AFP Peter PARKS

McDonald’s Quarter Pounders are temporarily unavailable in some states across the U.S. due to an outbreak of Escherichia coli food poisoning. There has been one confirmed death from the toxin the bacterium produces, according to the BBC. In addition, one child is in hospital with haemolytic uremic syndrome, which can cause kidney failure.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a food safety alert regarding an E. coli outbreak linked to one of the fast food chain’s most popular burgers. There are currently 49 recorded cases of E. coli across 10 different states: Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

McDonald’s is working with public health officials to determine the contaminated ingredient. Given there are multiple suppliers for the beef patties, and these a cooked to a high temperature, these are unlikely to be cause. One commonality is all affected restaurants shared a single supplier of onions (California-based Taylor Farms, one of the world’s largest vegetable processors). This is currently the main line of inquiry.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s shares are losing almost 7 percent. According to Hani Abuagla Senior Market Analyst at XTB MENA: “Historically, this is not the first situation of this type at McDonald’s, and each time the decline in share prices or sales resulting from similar ‘scandals’ turned out to be temporary, looking at the long-term horizon.”

Abuagla has provided his thoughts to Digital Journal.

Will this be the case on this occasion? Abuagla is not so sure: “This time, however, we are dealing with a number of negative factors. After a weaker second quarter of the year, the company has already announced that 2025 promises to be a ‘challenging year’, and an important driver of its growth was the ‘strong’ market in North America, where the ‘$5 meal’ recently debuted.”

Drawing some parallels, Abuagla observes: “Looking at the historical examples of E. coli poisonings at Chipotle (2015) and Jack in The Box (1993), comparable sales in the first case stabilized only after 1.5 years, and in the second case they fell for 4 quarters in a row.”

In terms of output, Abuagla predicts: “We can expect demand for McDonald’s meals to actually subside for some time as shares slide from all-time highs. Another aspect is the actual number of victims, which may increase, and possible legal costs.”

Yet there is more hope in the longer term since “the situation does not threaten the foundations of the chain’s business, and consumers are aware of the scale at which McDonald’s operates. Taking this into account, individual cases of poisoning do not invalidate the standards throughout the company. Nevertheless, the confirmed death may capture the imagination of consumers looking for alternatives to the Internet.”

Economic data will soon be available. Abuagla states: “The company will present its results on October 29, and if they also disappoint, we can expect a stronger downward impulse.”

Stressed Starbucks Baristas Decry ‘Skeleton’ Crews in Test for New CEO

Daniela Sirtori
Thu, October 17, 2024

(Bloomberg) -- On his second day at the helm, Starbucks Corp. CEO Brian Niccol said he was looking into complaints about understaffing. A previously undisclosed internal survey shows just how big of a problem employee shortages pose to worker morale.

Only 33% of workers who responded to a survey of the chain’s 10,000 US company-operated locations say stores consistently have sufficient staffing, according to results seen by Bloomberg News.

Staffing levels ranked as the issue with the lowest approval rating in the 45-question poll, which was conducted in April and shared internally in July.

“We are constantly only given a skeleton staff,” one worker said in comments collected as part of the survey results reviewed by Bloomberg. Employee names were withheld.

Making early strides to address workers’ concerns will be crucial for Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, who took over on Sept. 9. Speeding up service will be key to reversing two straight quarters of sales declines that precipitated his predecessor’s departure.

Workers say understaffing leads to backlogs at their stores. Less than half of the workers polled say their store’s equipment is reliable, compounding the problem.

Employees asked Niccol about the issue at a companywide forum on his second day on the job, according to a transcript of the event seen by Bloomberg News.

“The team is already working on it. You are being heard,” Niccol said in response to the question. He pledged to give baristas the “tools and time” they need to do their jobs in an open letter that same day.


Starbucks is refining the model it uses to allocate staffing to make sure it more precisely meets each store’s needs, a spokesperson said, building on work that had started before Niccol came on board. The company has bolstered staffing levels in 3,500 stores in the past year.

It has also added appliance upgrades aimed at making their jobs easier, including portable blenders introduced around mid-2023 to whip up cold foam, a popular topping. Earlier this year, Starbucks revamped the process to prepare popular beverages such as lattes and added a barista to tackle bottlenecks during the busiest times.

Manager Bandwidth

Three managers who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter say they have little bandwidth left for administrative tasks such as making schedules or coaching workers because they’re spending more time making drinks.


One of the managers said baristas and supervisors in their store are regularly skipping breaks and meals to keep up with the flurry of orders. At times, because of staff shortages, one worker has to cover multiple stations at once — from taking orders at the drive-thru to taking cash and warming food — which slows down service.

Managers, who unlike baristas are salaried employees, have been asking the company about staffing levels since at least early 2023, according to copies of dozens of messages posted to an internal message board where workers can pose questions to corporate headquarters about store operations.

The survey viewed by Bloomberg was administered to the more than 200,000 baristas, shift supervisors and store managers working at US company-operated stores and about 80% responded. The poll doesn’t include workers at locations run by third parties such as those located at airports or grocery stores. Starbucks conducts the poll twice a year and also collects feedback from workers through regular meetings.

Starbucks said in a statement that the survey shows “consistent improvement” in key areas of worker experience. The share of workers who said stores were adequately staffed rose since the last employee poll was conducted in October 2023. A bigger percentage of employees also said they were getting paid appropriately for their work in the most recent survey.

The company said in its most recent earnings report that turnover was at the lowest rate since the pandemic and more workers were getting the hours they want.

Still, the share of retail staff who would recommend Starbucks as a great place to work fell three percentage points in April from a year earlier, to 64%. Another statement, that Starbucks decisions “are made with partners in mind,” had a slightly smaller number in agreement in April compared with October, when fewer workers participated.

At the chain’s upscale Starbucks Reserve and Roastery locations in the US, just 25% of workers say staffing is adequate, while only half recommend Starbucks as a great place to work.

Those six locations in Seattle, New York and Chicago are supposed to be the pinnacle of the brand, with curated menus featuring Italian-style delicacies and creative drinks such as whiskey barrel-aged cold brew. But workers at some of the store are too stretched and struggling to deliver on the experience, a corporate staffer who works alongside store employees said.


Some at Starbucks are hopeful that the former Chipotle CEO will improve the worker experience. At the burrito chain, Niccol prioritized adding a second food assembly line for digital orders that relieved pressure on staff. Earlier this year, the burrito chain limited the number of online orders that could come in over a given period so workers wouldn’t get swamped. He also enhanced training for frontline employees.

But he also oversaw Chipotle during a tense period of union organizing. In addition, in 2022, Chipotle agreed to a $20 million settlement to resolve an investigation of whether it had violated New York City law governing scheduling and paid sick leave. Chipotle declined to comment.

“He needs to rally the troops,” Kevin McCarthy, a portfolio manager at Neuberger Berman, said shortly after Niccol was appointed. “He needs to make sure that he’s got buy-in from the rank and file.”

--With assistance from Josh Eidelson.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

ICYMI

The Big Rip: Low Wage Corporations Spent Half A Trillion Inflating CEO Pay – OpEd

 September 5, 2024  By Sarah Anderson

Most of us believe in fair pay for honest work. So why aren’t low-wage workers better paid?

After 30 years of research, I can tell you it’s not because employers don’t have the cash. It’s because profitable corporations spend that money on their stock prices and CEOs instead.

Lowe’s, for example, spent $43 billion buying back its own stock over the past five years. With that sum, the chain could’ve given each of its 285,000 employees a $30,000 bonus every year. Instead, half of Lowe’s workers make less than $33,000. Meanwhile, CEO Marvin Ellison raked in $18 million in 2023.

The company also plowed nearly five times as much cash into buybacks as it invested in long-term capital expenditures like store improvements and technology upgrades over the past five years.

Lowe’s ranks as an extreme example, but pumping up CEO pay at the expense of workers and long-term investment is actually the norm among America’s leading low-wage corporations.

In my latest “Executive Excess” report for the Institute for Policy Studies, I found that the 100 S&P 500 firms with the lowest median wages — the “Low-Wage 100” — blew $522 billion on buybacks over the past five years. Nearly half of these companies spent more on this once-illegal maneuver than they spent investing in their long-term competitiveness.

This is a scam to inflate CEO pay, pure and simple.

When companies repurchase their own shares, they artificially boost share prices and the value of the stock-based compensation that makes up about 80 percent of CEO pay. The SEC found that CEOs regularly time the sale of their personal stock holdings to cash in on the price surge that typically follows a buyback announcement.

I also looked into what these corporations contribute to employee retirement — it’s peanuts, compared to their buyback outlays. The 20 largest low-wage employers spent nine times more on buybacks than on worker retirement contributions over the past five years.

Many of these firms boast of their “generous” matching benefits, typically a dollar-for-dollar match of 401(k) contributions up to 4 percent of salary. But matching is meaningless for workers who earn so little they can’t afford to set anything aside.

Chipotle, for example, spent over $2 billion on stock buybacks over the past five years — 48 times more than it contributed to employee retirement plans. Meanwhile, 92 percent of eligible Chipotle workers have zero balances in their 401(k)s. That’s hardly surprising, since the chain’s median annual pay is just $16,595.

The conclusion is unmistakable: CEOs are focused on short-term windfalls for themselves and wealthy shareholders rather than on long-term prosperity for their workers — or their companies.

As United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain put it in his Democratic convention speech: “Corporate greed turns blue-collar blood, sweat, and tears into Wall Street stock buybacks and CEO jackpots.” Public outrage over CEO shakedowns helped the UAW win strong new contracts last year with the Big Three automakers.

Support for policy solutions is growing as well. The Democratic Party platform calls for quadrupling the 1 percent federal tax on stock buybacks. And a recent poll shows strong majority support among Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike for proposed tax hikes on corporations with huge CEO-worker pay gaps.

Extreme inequality isn’t inevitable — and it can be reversed.

Forty years ago, CEO pay was only about 40 times higher than worker pay — not several hundreds of times higher, as is typical today. And just 20 years ago, most big companies spent very little on stock buybacks. At Lowe’s, for example, buyback outlays between 2000 and 2004 were exactly zero.

Corporate America’s perverse fixation on enriching those at the top is bad for workers and bad for the economy. With pressure from below, we can change that.

• This op-ed was adapted from Inequality.org and distributed for syndication by OtherWords.org.Facebook

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Sarah Anderson
Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project and co-edits Inequality.org at the Institute for Policy Studies.

Union Busting in Buffalo Continues — But Restaurant Workers Are Fighting Back

Elmwood Taco and Subs faces community boycott and NLRB scrutiny as workers seek justice against anti-union retaliation.

By Derek Seidman ,

Truthout

September 2, 2024

Elmwood Taco and Subs (ETS) workers take part in an unfair labor practice strike in December 2023 in front of ETS in Buffalo, New York.ETS Union

The past few years have seen a wave of unionization among U.S. food service workers, most notably at Starbucks, where Starbucks Workers United has organized nearly 500 stores.

The Starbucks union drive, which went public in August 2021, was born in Buffalo, New York. Locally, other workers inspired by the Starbucks campaign, as well as the earlier SPoT Coffee union drive, went on to organize new Buffalo workplaces ranging from the Lexington Co-op to Remedy House.

Some of these campaigns have faced intense union busting. Workers at Buffalo’s Tesla plant confronted anti-union actions and firings when they tried to unionize, and baristas at unionized Starbucks stores across Buffalo fought back against employer retaliation for years.

But there’s one new Buffalo union that has faced an almost unparalleled level of retaliation, workers say.

Last fall, Truthout reported on the union drive at Elmwood Taco and Subs (ETS), a popular food shop in the heart of Buffalo’s Elmwood Village, located directly next to the first unionized Starbucks store. In November, ETS workers won their union in a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) vote by a 10 to 4 margin.

Unionization Wave Spurred by Starbucks Workers Is Spreading Across Buffalo

Workers at Elmwood Taco and Subs, an iconic local food shop, are continuing the wave of worker-led organizing.

By Derek Seidman , TruthoutNovember 27, 2023

But since then, the union says it has faced nothing but retaliation, union busting and bad faith bargaining. In July, the NLRB found merit in dozens of unfair labor practice charges filed by the union, including that an owner revved up and sped his truck at a picketer. Shockingly, one of the ETS owners is married to a Democratic county legislator who has previously received labor endorsements.

“These owners are probably the worst people I have dealt with in 49 years,” veteran labor organizer Richard Bensinger told Truthout.

The intensity of the retaliation has posed challenges for the union, but members remain hopeful that, through building community pressure, they can achieve some accountability and justice.

“If people even remotely care about workers’ rights, then they should not be going to ETS,” said Casey Moore, an organizer with Workers United. “People should not spend money at this company, and they should boycott them 100 percent until they stop union busting and bargain a contract in good faith.”
“The Most Vicious Union-Busting Campaign”

ETS workers had high hopes when they won their union last fall after a quick but tense union drive. They looked forward to bargaining a contract that would guarantee fairer pay and scheduling and more voice and respect on the job.

But almost immediately, the union says, ETS owners launched an aggressive campaign of retaliation.

Union supporters saw their hours cut. Violet Seguin, an ETS worker who helped start the union, says she went from working 38 hours a week to just five. She was also demoted from her role as a shift supervisor and suffered a wage cut.

“It was hard trying to figure out what to do for money and rent,” she said. “I eventually had to get a second job.”

The owners brought in family friends to work at ETS, workers told Truthout, and they stepped up intimidation tactics by installing voice recording cameras and showing up nearly every day to close the shop to hover over workers.

Seguin said the owners almost never helped close the shop before workers unionized. “We were very scared that one mistake would happen and we would get fired,” she said.

Truthout reached out to ETS for comment but did not receive a response.

Moore was a barista who helped organize the first Starbucks store next to ETS. Now she’s supporting the ETS union as an organizer with Workers United.

“They’ve just faced the most vicious union-busting campaign,” said Moore. “I don’t know if it’s surpassed Starbucks-level union busting, but it’s equally as bad, if not worse.”
“Boycott ETS!”

In early December 2023, barely a week after the union vote, ETS workers went out on strike, citing a range of unfair labor practices.

“We were on strike because our hours were cut so badly,” said Seguin.

In February 2024, seeing no progress, the union called for a community boycott of ETS, which is still ongoing.

ETS workers say that support from the labor community has been strong. This summer, several University at Buffalo Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU) members turned out for a boycott picket at ETS. GSEU President Joey Sechrist told Truthout that it was important for the union to come out and support ETS workers.

“The company has been doing everything in their power to union bust, cutting workers hours, engaging in unfair labor practices, to effectively stamp out the union,” said Sechrist

.

Members of the University at Buffalo Graduate Student Employees Union join a boycott action in front of Elmwood Taco and Subs in June 2024.Derek Seidman

A flyer that Elmwood Taco and Subs boycott supporters handed out to customers and passersby during a June 2024 action.Derek Seidman

ETS worker Ash Shanahan says other workers on Elmwood Avenue have been supportive, while Seguin says that visitors to Buffalo for the April 8 solar eclipse expressed sympathy. “It’s been really nice having the community be supportive of the boycott and not going to ETS,” said Seguin.

Seguin also noted with laughter that the “pothole bandit” — a secretive prankster who goes around Buffalo filling potholes with artwork — etched “Union Strong” into the sidewalk in front of ETS.
“Proven to Be Union Busters”

ETS workers were vindicated in July when the National Labor Relations Board found merit in dozens of the charges that the union filed from October 2023 through January 2024, as first reported by the Buffalo News.

These included 21 “unlawful coercive conduct” charges ranging from “interrogating an employee about their union activity” to “threatening employee benefits in response to union activity,” as well as 10 charges of “unlawful retaliation” that included “cutting the hours of employees in response to union activity” and “establishing a more demanding time and attendance policy in response to union activity.”

There were also seven “unlawful bargaining violations” that included “demoting employees” and “unilaterally cutting the wages of employees,” both without notifying the union or providing an opportunity to bargain over the decisions.

One of the most egregious NLRB determinations was that ETS owner Ron Lucchino engaged in “unlawful coercive conduct” when he revved and sped up his truck “aiming at a picketer while pulling into the ETS parking lot.”

After the picketer “had to suddenly move out of the way to avoid being hit by the truck,” Lucchino continued into the parking lot, saw employees picketing the drive-thru area, and “sped towards [employees picketing the drive-thru area] in his truck, and aimed his truck at the picketers in order to intimidate them.”

With the merit determinations, the union is hoping that ETS owners will be held accountable for their unlawful behavior. For workers, the NLRB findings also offer some vindication.

“They were proven to be union busters,” said Seguin.

“They Pushed Everybody Out”

Meanwhile, the union says ETS owners have been bargaining in extremely bad faith since late 2023, with no real desire to come to an agreement.

“We have been trying to bargain,” says Moore, “but we haven’t even remotely made any progress.”

Shanahan described a range of delay tactics by ETS owners. “They ask a billion questions just to waste time,” she said. “They filibuster throughout the whole thing.”

Meanwhile, the union says that ETS owners have been effectively forcing out union supporters. Union leaders like Seguin and Shanahan left ETS this summer, feeling like they had no other option because of the reduced hours and intense stress on the job.

“They pushed everybody out,” says Seguin.

Moore says the union has filed constructive discharge cases with the NLRB, arguing that ETS made working conditions so intolerable that workers had little choice but to leave. Constructive discharge happens when, instead of directly firing a worker, an employer creates working conditions so intolerable that the worker is effectively compelled to quit.

For the union, the owners’ goal seems clear: absorb any NLRB rulings while forcing out pro-union workers and moving toward a decertification vote later this year.

“They’re not actually coming to the bargaining table in good faith because their goal is to crush the union,” said Moore.

Workers United is hoping that mounting pressure from the NLRB, community and labor movement will help win justice for ETS workers and hold ETS owners to account. They and many other unions have also expressed support for the PRO Act, which would strengthen workers’ rights and weaken the ability of employers to bust unions and stall in bargaining.
Labor-Endorsed Democrat Married to Union-Busting Owner

ETS is owned by the Lucchino family, which also has extensive property holdings across Buffalo, including the bulk of the trendy Elmwood Avenue block where ETS is located. Jackie Kooshoian and Mike Lucchino, the children of Ron Lucchino, who opened the store in 1975, now oversee ETS.

But there’s a twist to the ETS story: Jackie Kooshoian’s husband is Michael Kooshoian, an Erie County legislator since 2022.

Kooshoian is a Democrat. In 2023, he was endorsed by the Buffalo Central Labor Council and the Western New York Area Labor Federation, and he appeared in photos with Buffalo labor leaders shortly before the ETS union drive went public.

“Buffalo is a union town” is a common local maxim. So the ETS union is drawing attention to the fact that a labor-endorsed county official is, they say, personally tied to and benefiting from a company engaged in intense union busting.A sign outside the Buffalo office of Workers United calling out Democratic Erie County Legislator Michael Kooshoian, whose family owns Elmwood Taco and Subs.Derek Seidman

“His family profits from this restaurant,” said Moore. “He has billed himself as a pro-labor Democrat. It’s very hypocritical.”

Peter De Jesús Jr., president of the Western New York Area Labor Federation (WNY ALF), told Truthout that “the situation at Elmwood Taco and Subs, and the involvement of Erie County Legislator Michael Kooshoian’s family in the anti-union activities, is deeply troubling,” adding that the recent NLRB merit determinations against ETS “underscore the severity of this issue.”

The WNY ALF, which represents 165 unions with 140,000 members across the region, previously endorsed Kooshoian. De Jesús Jr. says they’ve urged him “to address the actions of his family’s business” and that they’re “actively reviewing the situation and will take appropriate action based on our values for future endorsements.”

“It is clear that any endorsement from the labor movement is contingent upon a commitment to workers’ rights and union principles,” said De Jesús Jr. “Our message is simple: There is no place for anti-union behavior in any workplace, and those who support such actions will not receive our endorsement. The labor movement stands with the workers at ETS.”

Truthout reached out to Legislator Kooshoian for comment but did not receive a response.
Organizable After All

The ETS union drive is part of a larger wave of unionization in the U.S. food service sector over the past few years.

With high turnover, small dispersed shops and weak labor laws, the industry has been difficult to organize. But several broader shifts, including the impact of COVID-19 and the influx of Gen-Z workers, had created momentum for unionization in the sector.

“There are a lot of younger workers in low-wage jobs in the service sector, and they’re deeply attracted to the idea of organizing their own workplace,” labor expert John Logan told Truthout.

The Starbucks union drive that began in 2021 is the most well-known example, but other companies, from Chipotle to the Alamo Drafthouse, have also seen union drives.

“It’s really exciting to see so many service workers organizing, because for so long people said they just weren’t organizable,” said Moore.

The food service industry has responded harshly, lobbying against workers’ rights and coordinating industry-wide responses. Starbucks racked up hundreds of labor violations against workers before ultimately succumbing to pressure and agreeing to bargain in good faith.

Logan says that union busting within the food sector is not confined to major corporations like Starbucks, and that small restaurant owners can often view unions as “a sign of disloyalty to them” and as an obstacle to their desire for total control. “It’s a very personal thing,” he said. “It’s their business, and they’re not going to hand over control to anyone else.”
“Winning Means Getting Justice for the Workers”

In light of the NLRB’s merit determinations, the union is seeking a just settlement and for ETS to be held accountable for its union busting.

“Winning means getting justice for the workers,” said Moore. “Workers have the right to organize free from all the terrible things ETS has done.”

Challenges remain for the union. There has been significant turnover since last fall, and some newer employees are now “too scared” to get involved with the union, says Seguin.

Meanwhile, workers like Shanahan and Seguin push on in support of the union, even if they’re not currently working at ETS. They view the union campaign with great pride, even if they still bear some scars from the process.

“I’m super proud that I sat at the bargaining table,” said Shanahan, “and I will continue to do my best to sit there until, hopefully, we have a contract.”

“It’s definitely a huge accomplishment,” said Seguin. “No one has done that at ETS before.”

This article is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), and you are free to share and republish under the terms of the license. See further guidelines here.

Derek Seidman is a writer, researcher and historian living in Buffalo, New York. He is a regular contributor for Truthout and a contributing writer for LittleSis.

The Low-Wage Corporations That Blew Half a Trillion Dollars to Inflate CEO Pay

by Sarah Anderson

 September 2, 2024

RedditEmail

The Lowe’s home improvement store spent $43 billion on stock buybacks over the past five years. With that sum, the big box chain could’ve given each of its 285,000 employees a $30,000 bonus every year between 2019 and 2023.

The extra cash would’ve meant a lot to Lowe’s workers — half of whom make less than $33,000 per year. Meanwhile, the retailer’s CEO, Marvin Ellison, raked in $18 million in 2023.

Another sign of Lowe’s skewed priorities? The company plowed nearly five times as much cash into buybacks as it invested in long-term capital expenditures like store improvements and technology upgrades over the past five years.

Lowe’s ranks as an extreme example of a corporate model focused on pumping up CEO pay at the expense of workers and long-term investment. But such skewed priorities are actually the norm among America’s leading low-wage corporations.

The Low-Wage 100

This year’s edition of the annual Institute for Policy Studies Executive Excess reportfinds that the 100 S&P 500 firms with the lowest median wages, a group we’ve dubbed the “Low-Wage 100,” blew $522 billion over the past five years on stock buybacks. Nearly half of these companies spent more on this once-illegal financial maneuver than they spent on capital investment vital to long-term competitiveness.

Why the fixation on buybacks? This is a CEO pay-inflating financial scam, pure and simple. When companies repurchase their own shares, they artificially boost share prices and the value of the stock-based compensation that makes up about 80 percentof CEO pay. An SEC investigation confirmed that CEOs regularly time the sale of their personal stock holdings to cash in on the price surge that typically follows a buyback announcement.

Our Executive Excess report also looks at low-wage corporations’ expenditures on employee retirement security. The answer? Peanuts, compared to their buyback outlays.

The country’s 20 largest low-wage employers spent nine times as much on stock buybacks as on worker retirement plan contributions over the past five years. Many of these firms boast of their “generous” matching benefits, typically a dollar-for-dollar match of 401(k) contributions up to 4 percent of salary. But matching is meaningless for workers who earn so little they can’t afford to set aside anything for what should be their “golden years.”

Take Chipotle, for instance. The Mexican fast food chain spent over $2 billion on stock buybacks over the past five years — 48 times as much as the firm contributed to employee retirement plans. Meanwhile, 92 percent of Chipotle workers who are eligible to participate in the company’s 401(k) have zero balances. That’s hardly surprising, since the chain’s median annual pay is just $16,595.

The evidence is stark. CEOs of leading U.S. corporations are focused on short-term windfalls for themselves and wealthy shareholders rather than on long-term prosperity for their workers — or their companies.

As UAW President Shawn Fain put it in his primetime DNC convention speech: “Corporate greed turns blue-collar blood, sweat, and tears into Wall Street stock buybacks and CEO jackpots.”

Solutions to executive excess

Public outrage over CEO shakedowns helped the UAW win strong new contracts last year with the Big 3 automakers. Support for policy solutions is growing as well. The Democratic Party platform calls for quadrupling a new tax on stock buybacks. And a recent poll shows huge majority support among Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike for proposed tax hikes on corporations with huge CEO-worker pay gaps. The Executive Excess 2024 report offers an extensive menu of additional commonsense CEO pay reforms.

It’s important to remember that it hasn’t always been this way. Forty years ago, big company CEO pay was only about 40 times higher than worker pay — not several hundreds of times higher, as is typical today. And just 20 years ago, most big companies spent very little on stock buybacks. At Lowe’s, for example, buyback outlays between 2000 and 2004 were exactly zero.

Corporate America’s perverse fixation on enriching those at the top is bad for workers and bad for the economy. With pressure from below, we can change that.

Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.