May 26, 2021
How CEOs Pumped Up Their Pandemic Paychecks
While low-wage employees lost hours, jobs, and lives, their CEOs got raises. It's time to tax huge CEO-worker pay gaps.
Shutterstock
After the pandemic shut down their industry last March, Carnival and other cruise lines scrambled to get paying customers home—often while stranding employees at sea. As late as August, the company still had employees stuck on ships.
That same month, the company’s board awarded CEO Arnold Donald a special “retention and incentive” stock grant that inflated his 2020 compensation to $13.3 million—490 times more than the company’s median worker pay of just $27,151.
…
Read the full article at Newsweek.
Originally in Newsweek.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Further reading
Articles | Oct 20, 2026
‘Their Power Rests on Fear. Ours Rests on Each Other.’
At our LM Awards, Unidos MN leader Emilia Gonzalez Avalos shares the “sacred power” of neighbors standing up for each other.
Articles | Oct 19, 2026
Increasing Portland’s CEO Pay Surtax Would Boost Revenue and Encourage Narrower Pay Gaps
Sarah Anderson testified before the Portland, OR city council about a proposal to increase an existing tax on corporations with huge CEO-worker pay gaps.
Articles | Oct 19, 2026
Climate Week NYC 2026: War and the Climate Crisis Demand International Solidarity From Our Movements
The world we want now and for future generations is one where we are safe, healthy, and cared for. Let’s work together to make it ours.