Late in march, Disney’s executive chairman, Bob Iger, and CEO Bob Chapek, attempted to grab goodwill headlines before firing everyone by saying they would take big reductions in their own salaries. Iger said he would forgo his salary, while Chapek said he would take a 50% cut. Both men were talking about their base salaries, which are significantly less than the actual money they earn in their positions through dividends and bonuses. At the time, The Hollywood Reporter got their hands on an email Chapek reportedly sent out to other top tier staff saying: “Effective April 5, all VPs will have their salaries reduced by 20 percent, SVPs by 25 percent and EVPs and above by 30 percent."

A couple of days later, reports came out that those executives began to push back on these salary reductions, which makes sense. According to reports, while Chapek’s base salary of $2.5 million getting cut in half is substantial, it doesn’t touch the $75 million target bonus he gets, nor his “annual long-term incentive grant,” which is $15 million. And while a Disney vice president might receive between $150,000 to $200,000 a year, that pales in comparison to Bob Iger, who in “forgoing” his $3 million a year salary will likely not lose out on too much of the $44.5 million in “additional compensation.”

But all of this just shines a light on how unjust our pyramid economic system has become. While small businesses struggle and go under, big corporations with big profits are allowed to lean on taxpayers for big money. On top of all of this, what companies like Disney are able to easily get from our government is orders of magnitude larger than the modest financial help small businesses are struggling to get their hands on.