A chief executive officer of a Standard & Poor's 500 company was paid,
on average, $10.4 million in total compensation in 2008, according to preliminary data from The Corporate Library.
Excessive executive compensation has taken center stage since the government bailout of banks that began in September 2008. Americans have expressed outrage as CEOs and other executives responsible for the financial crisis have pocketed millions of dollars from bonuses and golden parachutes.
CEO perks alone grew in 2008 to an average of $336,248—or nine times the median salary of a full-time worker. Meanwhile, the economy tanked for working people while many companies were bailed out with more than $700 billion in taxpayer money, as well as low-interest loans and guarantees.
http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/
In 1970, CEO salary and bonus packages were typically about $700,000 - 25 times the average production worker salary; by 2000, CEO salaries had jumped to almost $2.2 million on average, 90 times the average salary of a worker, according to a 2004 study on CEO pay by Kevin J. Murphy and Jan Zabojnik.
Toss in stock options and other benefits, and the salary of a CEO is nearly 500 times the average worker salary, the study says.
http://blogs.payscale.com/content/20...laries--1.html