Donald M. Payne: “The ratio is how much more the CEO makes than the regular worker. If a worker is making $30,000 a year, in many…”

“The ratio is how much more the CEO makes than the regular worker. If a worker is making $30,000 a year, in many countries the CEO would be making maybe 10 times that amount at the highest, $300,000, maybe 15 times in some places. In the United States, it is almost difficult to quantify what the average salary is and what the CEOs are making. Pharmaceutical CEOs make between 25 and $30 million. That is the salary. That is what they make with bonuses, stock options, and salaries. In all of the industries, we see these salaries that are so far above what the average worker's salary is, it is difficult to quantify. I am afraid to give that number. It recently appeared in a New York paper about a week or so ago. We are driving people down. The middle class is being squeezed. That little $300 people got as a tax rebate, while others got millions of dollars. I congratulate Senator Corzine who is a very wealthy person. He said he did not want the tax cut. He did not need it. He thought it was unfair when people who are struggling daily to make a living, just to move ahead. We have people who cannot afford bus tickets for two or three kids going to high school, and a kid may have to drop out because the family cannot afford it. It is $50 a month in Newark. With three kids, it is $150. That is just one of the costs. We are making it difficult for struggling, working people to make ends meet.”