This meme banks on the viewer not knowing the context behind Chipotle CEO Brian Niccol’s compensation, the economics of price inflation and basic finance. Which is a safe bet in today’s world, so here’s the breakdown:
▪️First, this “$24M raise” occurred in 2020. The viewer would assume “last year” means 2021, when rising prices became big news, but in fact was a year earlier when prices weren’t yet spiking.
https://www.nrn.com/fast-casual/chipotle-mexican-grill-ceo-brian-niccol-made-38-million-2020-2898-times-more-median
▪️For context, Niccol’s 2018 compensation was $33.5M, which went down by over half to $16.1M in 2019 (remember all the memes bemoaning his $17M paycut?). It then went up to $38M in 2020.
https://www.salary.com/tools/executive-compensation-calculator/brian-niccol-salary-bonus-stock-options-for-chipotle-mexican-grill-inc?year=2020
▪️Niccol’s salary was initially set to be $14.8M in 2020, but because of the company’s stellar performance that year, he qualified for large financial bonuses. That’s where the “$24M raise” comes from. With Covid lockdowns and mandates, fast food places like Chipotle benefited & flourished.
▪️Of the CEO’s $38M earnings, just $1.2M was base pay, while $33M was stock awards and options. Keep in mind, stock awards aren’t paid out like a salary by Chipotle, pressuring their bottom line to raise burrito prices. They are borne by shareholders diluting their own stock, in hopes that these rewards incentivize the CEO to increase the value of the company.
▪️Which it did. Chipotle’s stock went up more than 65% in 2020 alone, and since Niccol joined the company in 2018, its market cap has increased by $30.6B, a 475% increase. In this context, $30M in stock grants are a rounding error to the company, and a winning one at that.
https://www.qsrmagazine.com/fast-casual/chipotle-ceos-pay-increased-137-percent-38-million-2020
▪️Chipotle also gave $40M in bonuses and assistance to employees during the pandemic, as well as another $13M in tuition assistance. But while this was more than CEO compensation, even this would pale in comparison to giving each employee a $1/hr raise.
https://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/chipotle-paid-out-over-40-million-bonuses-and-assistance-pay-employees-during-covid-19
▪️Chipotle has 88,000 employees. Assuming they work even just 25 hrs/week, a $1hr raise is an extra $114.4M per year (not including benefits). A $2/hr raise, probably more in line with restaurant worker salaries over the pandemic, would be an extra $228.8M.
▪️And, of course, this is just one component of burrito prices. All of the meat, rice, beans and produce got more expensive, which gets passed on with higher menu prices. The economic reality is that the Chipotle’s CEO pay has very little to do with burrito prices.
I first critiqued this terrible take by looking at how food has actually improved substantially. Even though I said the same could be done in every category, people said “you’re only doing food.” So let’s do air travel and see why it’s not gotten better, not worse.
▪️Aircraft have greatly improved. Just 15-20 years ago, many domestic routes (~15%) were flown by turboprops like the Brasilia, Dash 8 or Saab. Now, almost everything is in jets, and most aircraft have WiFi. Some even have Starlink, where you probably have faster WiFi than your home. Most major airlines offer dozens or hundreds of movies and shows to watch.
▪️Newer designs like the 787 have lower cabin altitudes and improved humidity, which make a huge difference in passenger comfort on long haul flights. The first/business class international market has gotten very competitive globally, with many carriers offering excellent service and amenities. Pods, suites, showers, etc. Coach still sucks but is dramatically cheaper ...
This is the complete opposite of an empirical fact. The right has now joined the left in being pessimistic about the modern world and completely unappreciative of the amazing abundance we now have. I’ll just focus on food here, but you could do it for almost every category.
▪️Fresh produce used to be available only in season. In the winter it was canned or frozen. People used to send fruit for Christmas gifts, it was that much of a luxury good. Now, you can get giant, sweet berries year around in every grocery store. Corn on the cob in February. Not to mention once rare items like dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes or baby bok choy.
▪️If you didn’t live on the coast, seafood was either not available, frozen, or extremely expensive. If you lived in the Midwest and traveled to coastal locales you would quite literally be able to eat food you had never seen. Salmon has become much more abundant and accessible. You can get fresh ahi at Walmart today. Sushi and oyster bars exist everywhere ...
▪️This is a proposal that pertains only to graduate level nursing degrees, not undergraduate ones (which were never considered professional degrees). The proposal will have a 30-60 day public comment period next year, where groups can object, before the DoE will decide on it.
▪️This is about how much federal student loans someone can take out for a particular degree. The cap on graduate degrees is $100k ($20,500/yr), while a “professional degree” limit is $200k ($50k/yr).
▪️Under the new rule proposal, professional degrees include:
🔹Pharmacy
🔹Dentistry
🔹Veterinary medicine
🔹Chiropractic
🔹Law
🔹Medicine (including osteopathic medicine & podiatry)
🔹Optometry
🔹Theology
▪️The nursing degrees excluded are ones like master of science in nursing (MSN), doctor of nursing practice (DNP) and PhD in nursing. These degrees would be limited to $100k in federal student loans, like all other graduate degrees.
▪️These changes came from the One Big Beautiful Bill’s...
