Shareholders Gained 50 Times as Much as U.S. Workers in Pandemic
A worker sorts merchandise at an Amazon fulfillment center in Robbinsville, New Jersey.
Photographer: Michael Nagle/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Shareholders in some of the biggest U.S. companies reaped wealth gains in the pandemic that outpaced pay hikes for their employees by more than 50 to 1, according to a study by the Brookings Institution.
The report -- focused on 22 industry leaders, including Amazon.com Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. -- found that stockholders added some $1.5 trillion in wealth between January 2020 and October 2021. The companies spent about $27 billion on additional pay and bonuses, and five times that amount on dividends and stock buybacks, the Washington-based think tank said.