The gap between CEO retirement packages and the benefits of ordinary Americans is wide and could expand under President-elect Donald Trump, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, a research center that studies executive compensation.

• 100 U.S. CEOs have company retirement funds collectively worth $4.7 billion – a total equal to the retirement savings of the 41% of U.S. families with the smallest reserves.
• … equal to the entire retirement savings of 44% of white working class households.
• … equal to 59% of African-American families.
• … equal to 75% of Latino families.
• … equal to 44% of female-headed households
• these nest eggs totaling $4.7Bn average out to $253,088 in monthly retirement payments for the rest of their lives.

The Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs from leading U.S. corporations, addressed executive compensation issues in a 2007 commentary. It said the benefits should be decided by independent directors, be "closely aligned with the long-term interests of shareholders and with corporate goals and strategies" and "include significant performance-based criteria."

That said, CEO compensation is often linked to a company's stock value, so the executives have an incentive to boost the firm's bottom line. Reaching that goal may include cutting employee retirement benefits. The U.S. tax code allows firms to deduct unlimited amounts of executive compensation from their corporate taxes if the benefits are "performance based."

ADDRESSING THE INEQUALITY.    The report calls for eliminating tax-deferred compensation plans for corporate executives, canceling tax breaks for companies that increase employee retirement insecurity and scrapping the provision that allows unlimited corporate tax deductions for executive pay.

The report also recommends requiring highly paid CEOs to pay more for their share of Social Security benefits, safeguarding public pensions and supporting the creation of universal state-run pension plans.