---
[ LOS ANGELES ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles)
# Essential Workers Take the Risk, CEOs Take the Reward
February 01 2021
Written by Sam Pizzigati.
[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)
**PERSPECTIVE**-Every week, millions of us walk into a Walgreens drugstore without giving it a second thought.
Maybe we should. Walgreens perfectly encapsulates the long-term economic trends of the Trump years: top corporate executives pocketing immense paychecks at the expense of their workers.
At Walgreens, workers start at just $10 an hour. No chain store empire employing essential workers pays less.
And no retail giant in the United States has given its workers[ less](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/12/22/amazon-and-walmart-have-raked-in-billions-in-additional-profits-during-the-pandemic-and-shared-almost-none-of-it-with-their-workers/) of a pandemic hazard pay bump — just 18 cents an hour, according to Brookings analysts Molly Kinder and Laura Stateler.
These paltry numbers look even worse when we turn our attention to the power suits who run Walgreens, who face no pandemic hazard. Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina [took home $17 million last year](https://www.execpay.org/news/walgreens-boots-alliance-inc-2020-compensation-529). Altogether, the five top Walgreens execs averaged $11 million for the year, a 9 percent hike over the previous year’s annual average.
Meanwhile, the typical Walgreens employee pulled down a mere $33,396. Pessina’s take-home[ outpaced](https://www.execpay.org/news/walgreens-boots-alliance-inc-2020-compensation-529) that meager reward by 524 times. In effect, Pessina made more in a single weekday morning than his company’s typical worker made for an entire year.
Kinder and Stateler found similar levels of greed at other U.S. retail giants, especially Amazon and Walmart. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and the heirs to the Walmart fortune, they note, “have grown $116 billion richer during the pandemic — 35 times the total hazard pay given to more than 2.5 million Amazon and Walmart workers.”
Amazon and Walmart, they[ add](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/12/22/amazon-and-walmart-have-raked-in-billions-in-additional-profits-during-the-pandemic-and-shared-almost-none-of-it-with-their-workers/), “could have quadrupled the extra COVID-19 compensation they gave to their workers” and still earned more profit than the previous year.
Not every major corporate player has treated the pandemic as just another easy greed-grab. Workers at Costco — who start at $15 an hour, $5 an hour more than workers at Walgreens — got an extra $2 an hour in hazard pay.
Costco’s top executive team, interestingly, last year[ collected](https://www.execpay.org/news/costco-wholesale-corp-2019-compensation-58) less than half the pay that went to their counterparts at Walgreens. Costco’s most typical workers took home $47,312 for the year. At [169 to one](https://www.execpay.org/news/costco-wholesale-corp-2019-compensation-58), that’s less than one-third the pay gap between Walgreen’s chief exec and his company’s most typical workers.
As a society, which corporations should we be rewarding — those whose executives enrich themselves at worker expense, or those that value the contributions *all* their employees are making?
In moments of past national crises, like World War II, lawmakers took action to prevent corporate profiteering. They[ put in place](https://prospect.org/coronavirus/its-time-to-revive-the-excess-profits-tax/) stiff excess profits taxes. We could act in that same spirit today. We could, for instance, raise the tax rate on companies that pay their top execs unconscionably more than their workers.
We could also start linking government contracts to corporate pay scales: no tax dollars to any corporations that pay their CEOs over a certain multiple of what their workers take home.
Efforts to link taxes and contracts to corporate pay ratios[ have already begun](https://inequality.org/action/corporate-pay-equity/).
Voters in San Francisco this past November opted to[ levy](https://inequality.org/great-divide/san-francisco-ceo-pay-tax/) a tax penalty on corporations with top executives making over 100 times typical San Francisco worker pay. Portland, Oregon [took a similar step](https://www.thenation.com/article/inequality-tax-poverty-billionaire/) in 2018. At the national level, progressive lawmakers have[ introduced](https://inequality.org/great-divide/putting-the-brakes-on-corporate-americas-inequality-engine/) comparable legislation.
Donald Trump may be gone, but the executives who did so well throughout his tenure remain in place. We need to change the rules that flatter their fortunes.
*(Sam Pizzigati is the co-editor of Inequality.org and author of The Case for a Maximum Wage and The Rich Don’t Always Win. This op-ed was adapted from Inequality.org and distributed by* [*OtherWords.org*](https://otherwords.org/essential-workers-take-the-risk-ceos-take-the-reward/)*.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.*
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/component/banners/click/115 "Brian Goldsmith Vertical R. Col")
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/component/banners/click/107 "LA DWP | Save $4K, Green | Priority Ad")
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/component/banners/click/114 "McKinney Campaign")
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/component/banners/click/82 "LA DWP #2 (Power Savers)")
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/component/banners/click/98 "Donna Tryfman - HS1-1")
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/component/banners/click/97 "Home - LA DWP #2 (Pay Water Bill Help)")
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/component/banners/click/111 "David DeJute Campaign")
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/component/banners/click/112 "Anna Reitano Vertical R. Col")
## Get The News In Your Email Inbox Mondays & Thursdays
Name
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/component/banners/click/113 "Rhonda Haymon campaign")
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/component/banners/click/110 "Something You Should Know")
---
## Featured CityWatch Stories
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/election-2024/33624-prosecutor-democrat-city-attorney-mckinney-makes-his-case-to-los-angeles-voters)
### [Prosecutor, Democrat, City Attorney? McKinney Makes His Case to Los Angeles Voters](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/election-2024/33624-prosecutor-democrat-city-attorney-mckinney-makes-his-case-to-los-angeles-voters)
ELECTION 2026 - The race for LA City Attorney has been laced with political accusations and allegations that when close…
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/la-watchdog/33544-the-la-watchdogs-2026-voters-guide-2)
### [The LA Watchdog’s 2026 Voter Guide](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/la-watchdog/33544-the-la-watchdogs-2026-voters-guide-2)
LA WATCHDOG - My recommendations are influenced by the need for truly balanced budgets, fiscal responsibility, long ter…
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33626-the-fools-blame-game)
### [The Fools’ Blame Game](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33626-the-fools-blame-game)
THE VIEW FROM HERE - Angelenos do not use elections to plot a wiser course of conduct for Los Angeles, but rather they…
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33619-california-film-tax-credits-arent-enough-the-guilds-need-to-change-too)
### [California Film Tax Credits Aren’t Enough. The Guilds Need to Change Too.](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33619-california-film-tax-credits-arent-enough-the-guilds-need-to-change-too)
LONNIE’S VIEW - California used to be the center of the movie and television universe. If you wanted to make movies, yo…
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/voices/33648-heres-what-zionisms-got-to-do-with-it)
### [Here’s What Zionism’s Got To Do With It](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/voices/33648-heres-what-zionisms-got-to-do-with-it)
ICAN - The anonymous website “BHUSD Watch” recently published a long, detailed article about the current BHUSD board an…
---
## [ LOS ANGELES ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles)
### [Cold War House in LA](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33669-cold-war-house-in-la)
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33637-getting-housing-projects-through-los-angeles-permitting-and-land-use-approvals)### [Getting Housing Projects Through Los Angeles Permitting and Land-Use Approvals](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33637-getting-housing-projects-through-los-angeles-permitting-and-land-use-approvals)
### [JAY on LA 10-28-26](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33630-jay-on-la-10-28-26)
### [JAY ON LA for 10-26-26](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33629-jay-on-la-for-10-26-26)
[  ](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33616-from-dreams-to-careers-pasadena-summit-opens-doors-for-la-county-youth)### [From Dreams to Careers: Pasadena Summit Opens Doors for LA County Youth](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/los-angeles/33616-from-dreams-to-careers-pasadena-summit-opens-doors-for-la-county-youth)