It's hard to tell anti-capitalist protesters from AFL-CIO leaders these days. (Photo credit: csuspect)

The AFL-CIO is demonizing millionaire CEOs that make their money the old-fashioned way—by working hard and earning it. According to the union, more than 100,000 median wage earning workers could be supported if the nation’s top earning CEOs were, presumably, eliminated or magically decided to work for free. The AFL-CIO’s “Executive PayWatch” website states:

In 2010, Standard & Poor’s 500 Index company CEOs received, on average, $11.4 million in total compensation— a 23 percent increase in one year. Based on 299 companies’ most recent pay data for 2010, their combined total CEO pay of $3.4 billion could support 102,325 median workers’ jobs.

Taking a page from the AFL-CIO’s book of wishful thinking, bloggers at The Union News reverse-engineered the union’s argument to see what would happen if billions in union dues hadn’t been collected in 2010 and blown on “salaries and benefits of union bosses, their staffs, and their golf courses, airplanes, and other costs.” The results, though speculative, seem to shatter the glass house in which the AFL-CIO enjoys throwing its rocks:

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010, there were 14.7 million union Americans belonging to unions. While that only represents 11.9 percent of all wage and salary earners, there is a substantial amount of dues money flowing to unions.

If we were to use a conservative figure of $50 per month for union dues, in 2010, unions collected $735,000,000 per month in union dues from America’s unionized workers. Multiply $735,000,000 by 12 months and you get a whopping $8,820,000,000 that was collected in union dues in 2010.

Divide $8,820,000,000 by $33,227 and you’ll find that if unions did not take union dues from workers in 2010, 265,447 workers’ jobs could have been supported.

We’re guessing AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka probably won’t be testing out The Union News’ theory to see if it holds any merit, and for obvious reasons.