THE FIRST WORKING DAY of almost every New Year, a story seems to circulate that says, by noon, some CEOs will have earned what their average worker will take home that year. Indeed, the ratio of executive compensation to employee wages is astronomically high in certain organizations, with some blue- chip companies in the United States paying their CEOs several thousand times the average wage of employees. The average CEO/ employee wage gap is about 670 to 1, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington-based non-profit that advocates for K progressive policies. C O In Canada, that ratio is less, but still extreme. The country’s top T S I CEOs make about 191 times the average wage of their workers, ac- K/ S cording to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. AA Y AD What can directors do about that, given today’s push for corpora- N B tions to pursue strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) O related practices, and to let stakeholders see and judge them on those TI TRA efforts? Is the widespread new focus on ESG the catalyst that direc- S tors need to correct what appears to be a major social injustice? LLU I