Corporations will no longer be able to hide how much CEOs are paid compared to the workers who make those companies run, under a rule proposed today by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The rule requires companies to disclose the ratio of total compensation between chief executive officers and the median pay of employees.

That new rule does far more than help point out the historic and growing massive gap between CEO and worker pay. It is an important tool for investors to judge a company’s internal compensation structure, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Despite the objections of investor advocates, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized a rule that will lift a decades-old ban on advertising by hedge funds. The original prohibition on such advertising dated back to Great Depression and protected people from investment scams.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will consider a rule to require disclosure of political spending by publicly traded corporations in April. By putting this rule making on its agenda, the SEC is responding to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United, which ended restrictions on independent corporate spending for public communications that influence elections.

Moments ago, we launched the 2012 AFL-CIO Executive PayWatch site—now called CEO Pay and the 99%—which includes the most comprehensive data accessible on 2011 executive pay. All of the data available is searchable by industry, by state and by the top 100 highest-paid CEOs.

AFL-CIO Policy Director Damon Silvers has been appointed to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new Investor Advisory Committee. The committee was created as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Here’s a great video that shows in part how the nation got to the point where inequality is so rampant, CEO greed so unrepentent and Wall Street so not held accountable that people across the nation have taken to the streets—and are staying there.