In the virtual meeting, when MillerKnoll staff asked about bonuses, CEO Andi Owen advised them to ‘leave pity city’ and get back to work|@millerknoll|via Twitter

Furniture maker MillerKnoll CEO Andi Owen’s comment in a recent employee meeting went viral, drawing larger criticism about CEOs’ pay and how out of touch they are with workers.

In the virtual meeting with staff, when employees asked about bonuses, Owen advised them to “leave pity city” and get back to work. The clip of her saying that was watched more than 7 million times on Twitter and received severe backlash.

As of May 2022, Owen made $3.9 million on top of her fixed salary of $1.1 million since her pay is incentive-based. The salary is way more than what a normal employee in MillerKnoll would make.

Owen reportedly apologized to staff via mail and said, “I feel terrible that my rallying cry seemed insensitive.”

CEOs’ payout on the rise
According to Economic Policy Institute data, CEOs got paid 399 times as much as a typical worker in 2021. Policy analysts say that the wage gap between heads of companies and their staff is “higher now than it's ever been.”