By 2006 the US CEO-to-average-worker pay ratio had risen to between 400/1 and 600/1.

Judged as of October 2009, using credible published estimates of the US CEO-to-average-worker pay ratio for 2006 (for example EPI, AFL-CIO, Institute for Policy Studies, or academic series). True: the main published 2006 estimates lie within 400:1 to 600:1. Mostly true: the main estimates lie in the range and only a minor secondary estimate falls outside. Mixed: credible measures disagree, with some in the range and others clearly outside it. Mostly false: the leading estimate is just outside the range (between 380 and 400 or between 600 and 620). False: the credible 2006 estimates lie clearly outside the range (below 380 or above 620).

Set before the research began.

1. E1 EPI Study Examines Sky High CEO Pay - IAM Union IAM Union (citing Economic Policy Institute) · 29 June 2006

   “CEO’s in the U.S. earned an astounding 262 times the pay of the average worker in 2005, the second-highest level in 40 years, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).”

2. E2 AFL-CIO Slams Big Bucks Pensions CBS News · 7 April 2006

   “Trumka said average executive pay at a company on the Standard & Poor's 500 is already more than 400 times the average worker's wages.”

3. E3 Executive Excess 2006 Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy · August 2006

   “Over the next two decades, as pay gaps rose from the 35-to-1 ratios that typified the corporate pay scene in the 1960s to 200-, 300-, even 400-to-1, Drucker remained committed to his earlier standard.”

4. E4 CEO-to-worker pay imbalance grows Economic Policy Institute · 21 June 2006

   “In 2005, the average CEO in the United States earned 262 times the pay of the average worker, the second-highest level of this ratio in the 40 years for which there are data.”

5. E5 US Defense And Oil Company Executives Reap Windfalls From Iraq War | Countercurrents Countercurrents (reprinting World Socialist Web Site) · 15 September 2006

   “In the period following 1990, one dominated by unprecedented deregulation and globalization, executive pay soared while workers’ wages by and large stagnated, generating a pay gap of 411-to-1.”

6. E6 Nine Years of Neglect: Federal Minimum Wage Remains Unchanged for Ninth Straight Year, Falls to Lowest Level in More than Half a Century, 8/31/06 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities · 31 August 2006

   “By 2005, the average CEO was paid 821 times as much as a minimum wage earner; this is the widest discrepancy on record.”

The criteria require published estimates of the CEO-to-worker pay ratio for 2006, but the evidence gives 2005 figures (262 to 1 in [E4] and [E1], and 821 to 1 against minimum wage earners in [E6]), a post-1990 period measure of 411 to 1 [E5], and a spoken figure of more than 400 to 1 with no stated year [E2]. None of these is a 2006 estimate, so the evidence does not settle the claim under the criteria.