Rubbish Check
Guardian US · 27 August 2026
source“CEOs earn 614 times more than workers at US’s 100 lowest-paying corporations”
R3/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
12345678910
In short
Rubbish Talk rates the Guardian's claim that CEOs earn "614 times more" than workers at the 100 lowest-paying US corporations a 3/10 because the 614:1 figure is lifted directly from the Institute for Policy Studies' primary report and the headline correctly scopes it to a selected subset, though it omits the S&P 500-wide benchmark that shows how extreme that ratio really is.
The Verdict
Lightly altered. The core number checks out against the primary source without distortion, but the headline and article leave out one comparison point that would sharpen, not soften, the story: the broader S&P 500 average ratio is far lower, meaning the "Low-Wage 100" figure is not a general snapshot of corporate America but a deliberately selected worst-case cohort.
What actually happened
The Institute for Policy Studies published its annual "Executive Excess" report analysing pay at the 100 S&P 500 companies with the lowest median worker pay, a group it calls the "Low-Wage 100." The average CEO-to-worker pay ratio at these firms was confirmed by the IPS report itself: "The average CEO-worker pay ratio of Low-Wage 100 firms has widened from 574 to 1 in 2019 to 614 to 1 in 2025." The Guardian's headline figure matches the primary source exactly.
Key facts
- Ratio at the 100 lowest-median-pay S&P 500 firms: 614:1 in 2025, up from 574:1 in 2019, as reported directly by IPS.
- Average CEO compensation at these firms was $17.5m in 2025 versus median worker pay of $36,571, per the article.
- CEO pay rose 41.4% (unadjusted) between 2019 and 2025, versus 20.7% for median worker pay, both trailing/outpacing the 25.9% inflation figure cited for the same period.
- For context missing from the Guardian piece, one corroborating outlet reported the broader S&P 500 average ratio, excluding Elon Musk's pay, is far lower at roughly 312:1, underscoring that the "Low-Wage 100" is a deliberately narrow, worst-case sample.
- Seventeen of the 100 companies in the cohort reported ratios of 1,000:1 or higher, per the IPS report.
What to watch for
Watch whether follow-up coverage clarifies that "Low-Wage 100" means the lowest-median-pay firms within the S&P 500, not a cross-section of the US economy; conflating the two would push future headlines toward the spin-heavy band. Also watch next year's ratio: buybacks at these firms already rose to $108.6bn in 2025 from $105bn, a trend that will keep widening the gap if worker pay growth doesn't accelerate.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
