Workers of the world, unite

In the past week, we've heard about the declining union membership in the United States and about corporations defaulting on their pension plans. Paul Krugman wrote on Friday about the changing relationship between corporations and their employees. He also hinted at something my own paper, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, featured today--the growing gap between CEO and worker pay at companies throughout the country.

Nationwide, the median increase for CEO pay last year was right around ten percent (depending on how you calculate compensation). Meanwhile, real wages for workers have remained basically flat for the past three years. In 2003, the average large-company CEO pay was 500 times that of his or (sometimes) her average worker.

This is a problem with many contributing causes and no easy solution. But there are some questions we should all ask ourselves about how this issue intersects with our lives. Which companies do we invest in, shop at, work for? What are the pressure points that impact corporate decisions about how employees are treated and compensated, and how can we use our power--purchasing, bully pulpit, policy, or otherwise--to reach those pressure points? And does an 'ownership society' suggest policies that help people become owners (like helping first-time homebuyers), or policies that protect people who already are owners (like total elimination of the estate tax)? Especially as our society trends towards protecting the rich, we have a moral imperative to make sure we are looking out for 'the least among us'.