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DrugMajorInstitute - Dec 27, 2006
www.DrumMajorInstitute.org/YearInReview

DMI's 2006 Injustice Index

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Wages that an average CEO earns before lunchtime: more than a full-time
minimum wage worker makes in a year

Ratio of the average U.S. CEO's annual pay to a minimum wage worker's: 821:1

Year when this ratio reached its highest so far: 2006

Total compensation in 2005 of Barry Diller of IAC/Interactive, the highest
paid CEO in the US today: $469 million

Additional amount that Mr. Diller received in new stock options "to motivate
Mr. Diller for future performance": $7.6 million

Percentage of Americans who feel chronically overworked: 30

Years of unused vacation time that American workers collectively give back
to their employers each year: 1.6 million

Percentage of women earning less than $40,000 per year who receive no paid
vacation time at all: 37

Payment per episode that Donald Trump receives to host The Apprentice:
$3,000,000

Average amount that companies spend to recruit a new CEO from outside the
company: $2,000,000

Probability that the newly hired CEO will either quit or be fired within the
first eighteen months: 1 in 2

Estimated number of people lined up outside the new M&M store set to open in
Times Square responding to ads for "on-the-spot" hiring for 200 jobs, 65 of
which were fulltime: between 5,000 and 6,000

Starting salary that drew them there: $10.75 per hour

Fee Paris Hilton is seeking to host a New Year's Eve party in NYC, Miami, or
L.A.: $100,000 plus a private jet

Amount that Ms. Hilton is set to inherit from the Hilton Hotel fortune: 350
$million

Number of times that Congress has reduced the estate tax since it last
raised the federal minimum wage: 9

Longest period in which the federal minimum wage has not been increased:
1997-2006

Number of workers who would directly benefit from an increase in the minimum
wage: 5.6 million

Number of very large estates that would directly benefit from a reduction in
the estate tax: 8,200

Highest price per custom-fitted, handmade power suit in Armani's new line,
which hopes to respond to what ex-Gucci head designer Tom Ford calls "a lot
of pent-up demand for true luxury [from men who] are getting rich first, and
they want to deck themselves out before they deck out their wives": $20,000

Number of households using credit to cover basic living expenses: 7 in 10

Amount in tax breaks and subsidies that last year's energy bill paid out to
the gas and oil industry during a period of record profits and higher prices
at the pump: $6 billion

Campaign donations that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who voted for the
energy bill, received from the oil and gas industry: $500,000, making her
the top recipient of oil contributions in the 2006 election cycle

Percentage of U.S. workers who are confident they will be able to live
comfortably after retirement: 68

Percentage who have saved less than $25,000 toward their retirement: 53

Percent of African-American and Latino families that have zero or negative
net worth, respectively: 31 and 38

Date on which USA Today reported that Dr. Anthony Griffin of the Beverly
HillsCosmetic Surgery Institute, who appears on the ABC program Extreme
Makeover, predicted that CEOs will lead a surge inmale cosmetic surgery
because, he says, "for instance,executives on trial for corporatescandals
would improve theirchances for acquittal with amakeover just before trial":
November 4, 2006

Date on which the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its all-time high:
October 26, 2006

Decrease in percentage of Americans who own stocks from 2004 to 2006, the
first such decline on record: 51.9% to 48.6%

Total Wal-Mart received in government subsidies, sometimes called "corporate
welfare" by activists, in 2005: $3.75 billion

Percent of the decline in welfare caseloads that is due to TANF programs
failing to serve families that are poor enough to qualify, rather than due
to a reduction in the number of families poor enough to qualify for aid, in
the ten years since "welfare reform": 57

Percentage of the GDP that went to wages and salaries in the first half of
2006: 51.8

Time when the percentage of GDP belonging to wages and salaries was lower
than in 2006, out of the 77 previous years for which these data are
available: never

Projected total in Christmas bonuses that investment banks in New York City
will pay out in 2006: $23.9 billion

Estimated additional amount U.S. workers would receive annually if all
employers obeyed workplace laws: $19 billion

Ratio of compensation of CEOs of publicly traded defense companies to
privates before September 11th, 2001: 190 to 1

Ratio in 2006: 308 to 1

Percentage increase in out-of-pocket medical expenses for the average
American in the past 5 years: 93

Estimated amount the U.S. would save each year on paperwork if it adopted
single-payer health care: $161,000,000,000

Date on which incoming Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson announced "Amid this
country's strong economic expansion, many Americans simply aren't feeling
the benefits. Many aren't seeing significant increases in their take-home
pay. Their increases in wages are being eaten up by high energy prices and
rising health care costs, among others": August 2, 2006

According to exit polls in the midterm elections, percentage of Americans
who think life for the next generation will be about the same or worse
respectively: 28, 40

[This Injustice Index is one section among many in DMI's 2006 Year in
Review. For more on the state of the American Dream in 2006 - including
a summary of the Best and Worst of public policy this year, a status
report on the States, a look at how the think tanks of the conservative
Right have been spending their time and money in 2006, and interviews
with eight people impacting America through Progressive Public Policy -
please check out DMI's Year in Review online.]

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