Silly you. Bet you were confused, thinking that that extra money was hidden in your paycheck, a gift from those companies sitting on a trillion dollars in cash. C'mon, this is the United States of America where the only people who deserve more money are those that have plenty already: The CEOs of the country, many of whom helped cause the financial crisis that bankrupted millions of Americans.
Life continues to be good for CEOs:
Brace yourself.
The final figures show that the median pay for top executives at 200 big companies last year was $10.8 million. That works out to a 23 percent gain from 2009. The earlier study had put the median pay at a none-too-shabby $9.6 million, up 12 percent.
Total C.E.O. pay hasn’t quite returned to its heady, prerecession levels — but it certainly seems headed there. Despite the soft economy, weak home prices and persistently high unemployment, some top executives are already making more than they were before the economy soured.[emphasis added]
They just don't live like you:
In some ways, chief executives seem to live in a world apart when it comes to pay. As long as shareholders think that the top brass is doing a good job, executives tend to be well paid, whatever the state of the broader economy. And some corporate boards were probably particularly generous in 2010 after a few relatively lean years for their top executives. In other words, some of this was makeup pay.
....
According to a report released by GovernanceMetrics in June, the good times for chief executives just keep getting better. Many executives received stock options that were granted in 2008 and 2009, when the stock market was sinking.
Now that the market has recovered from its lows of the financial crisis, many executives are sitting on windfall profits, at least on paper. In addition, cash bonuses for the highest-paid C.E.O.’s are at three times prerecession levels, the report said.
And for, you, the average schlub:
The average American worker was taking home $752 a week in late 2010, up a mere 0.5 percent from a year earlier. After inflation, workers were actually making less.[emphasis added]
None of this is a surprise.
The richest are taking a bigger slice of the wealth all over the planet.
Profits at the Fortune 500 registered the third largest gain in history.
“There has been a massive wealth transfer from middle-class America’s retirement accounts to the bank accounts of the privileged few".
The Audacity of Greed is running rampant.
7:15 AM PT: Gotta run out here in a few so apologies. Hope to catch up with this later.