re: #103 GeneJockey

I’m somewhat less cynical, but I would note that executive compensation is decided by Boards of Directors, which are largely composed of the same kind of people, often CEOs at other companies. Naturally, they see the CEO as worthy of such high pay. Not coincidentally, raising the CEO’s salary at another company makes it easier to argue for their own to increase.

The problem is growing at an exponential rate too…

The ratio of CEO-to-worker pay has increased 1,000 percent since 1950, according to data from Bloomberg. Today Fortune 500 CEOs make 204 times regular workers on average, Bloomberg found. The ratio is up from 120-to-1 in 2000, 42-to-1 in 1980 and 20-to-1 in 1950.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/30/ceo-to-worker-pay-ratio_n_3184623.html

Of course back in the 50’s the country was in an economic tail spin, we had no production, and people were doomed to live and die without improving their lot in life.

Oh wait… my bad.

RBS