The pay ratio of an average CEO to that of an average worker in America has been on the rise since 1980. The disparity was not so much in the 1980s and ‘90s since the ratio stood at 47 and 107, respectively. However, between 1980 and 2000, the ratio sharply increased, hitting its peak at US$ 525 in the year 2000. From 2000, the ratio has reduced but with a smaller margin, standing at US$ 311 in the year 2013. The situation, however, hasn’t changed significantly for average factory workers, especially men, whose pay per hour has almost remained constant since the year 1970 (Dye, Zeigler, & Schubert 70). Considering the same ratio in Japan where it stands at 17, i.e. a CEO averagely earns 17 times what an ordinary worker earns per hour, the sharp disparity in America supports the elite theory of democracy.
The elite theory postulates that the society has two groups of individuals, a clique of people who have power and they are referred to as the elite, and the majority who do not have such powers and they are called the masses (Dye, Zeigler, & Schubert 4). The elites try very much to preserve the norms of the system so that the status quo is maintained as it favors them. To address dissent in the system, they prefer to ensure that there are gradual changes that please the masses but in essence, these only buy the trust of the masses to avoid a revolution and provide a platform for the elites to pursue their interests at the expense of the masses’. The disparity in an average CEO to an average worker’s pay support the elite theory since corporations have deceived these workers by slightly increasing their pay, or even maintaining it at some level as is the case of male workers, but always increasing the pay to CEOs by large margins. At the same time, the slow process of increasing the pay of CEOs so that they may join the elites in the society also reflects the underlying principles of elite theory which states that movement from the masses to elites is always slow but for only those who have accepted to play into the rules of societal elites (Dye, Zeigler, & Schubert 4).
Works Cited
Dye, Thomas R., L. Harmon Zeigler, and Louis Schubert. The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2014. Web. 29 May 2016.
Dye, Thomas R., L. Harmon Zeigler, and Louis Schubert. The Irony of Democracy: An Uncommon Introduction to American Politics. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2014. Print.
