It’s that time of year again: new CEO pay figures! This week in OtherWords, my colleague Sarah Anderson shares her annual roundup of the worst offenders when it comes to stiffing the workers who make companies valuable.
“The gap between CEO compensation and median worker pay at Starbucks hit 6,666 to 1 last year,” she writes. “To make as much money as their CEO made in 2024, typical baristas would’ve had to start brewing macchiatos around the time humans first invented the wheel.” Don’t miss her op-ed or suggestions for how to close these yawning pay gaps.
Also this week, my colleague Hanna Homestead crunches the numbers on Trump’s invasion of D.C.: Every day the National Guard deployment goes on, she calculates, it costs taxpayers over $1 million. With Trump ordering authorities in part to help clear encampments of unhoused people, Hanna points out that simply housing them would be much cheaper.
That’s also true, she finds, in the states that have sent their own Guardsmen to D.C. at Trump’s requests.
Meanwhile, I argue that for all the dangerous new ground broken by Trump’s D.C. takeover — and his alarming willingness to deploy troops on U.S. soil — it also fits with a much older pattern in politics: division and distraction. Trump wants to divide Americans and distract them from a series of recent scandals, I argue, including Trump’s appearance in the Epstein files and the Medicaid cuts that will devastate many of his own voters.
Finally, Andréa Wilson writes about what it’s really like to experience housing insecurity. Even doing a dissertation on it couldn’t prepare her for what it’s really like, she writes.
New This Week…
CEOs Are Getting Richer. Everyone Else Is Falling Behind. | Sarah Anderson
At the 100 largest low-wage corporations, the average CEO now makes 632 times more than a typical worker. And Americans are fed up.
Trump’s Invasion of D.C. Costs Over $1 Million a Day. What Could That Fund Instead? | Hanna Homestead
Deploying the National Guard against D.C.’s unhoused population costs four times more than simply housing them. And that’s true across the country.
I Did My Dissertation on Housing Displacement. Then I Experienced It Myself. | Andréa Wilson
If someone like me can get trapped in the cycle of housing instability, anyone can. But the solutions are out there.
Trump Wants You Talking About Nonexistent Crime, Not His Medicaid Cuts | Peter Certo
The president is sucking up oxygen with bogus crime stories because he doesn’t want you talking about his Medicaid cuts — or Jeffrey Epstein.
In Case You Missed It…
Trump’s Tax Law Clobbers State Budgets. Now’s the Time to Prepare. | Amy Hanauer
With Trump and the GOP slashing essential services to enrich the wealthy, states and cities need to get creative in taking care of the rest of us.
I Beat the Odds and Made It to Law School. Others Won’t Get the Chance. | Olabisi Omoniyi-Alake
For students like me, grad school would be unthinkable without federal Grad PLUS loans — which Trump just eliminated.
Wall Street Is Killing the Housing Market | Garrett Brand
Investment giants are buying up homes and pricing real people out of the market. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
When Local Cops Act Like ICE Agents, We’re All Less Safe | Maya Khadr
Agreements between ICE and local police are eroding public safety and trust in law enforcement.
The Deadliest Conflict for Journalists in History | Farrah Hassen
Israel has killed more journalists in Gaza than have died in essentially all other modern conflicts combined. But their work is still reaching the world.
