There’s been a lot of ballyhoo lately about ballooning executive pay, so here’s a look at how CEO incomes rose over the years in relation to Joe Blow’s paycheck.

It looks like while CEO pay rose 298.2% by 2005, and corporate profits by 106.7%, the average worker pay has only risen by 4.3%.

The chart seems to show no direct relationship between CEO pay and profit performance, however, CEO pay does track nearly parallel with the S&P 500. That stock options are included in the CEO pay, and those have gotten more popular in recent years, might be a factor. Another is that the CEO population is smaller than that of the average workers, so naturally there’s going to be more volatility.

Profits or losses, stocks up or down, the average worker gets paid nearly the same. Maybe the breed of CEOs is just working harder while everyone else is just treading water… — BEN POPKEN

CEO Pay, Stock Prices, Corporate Profits, Worker Pay, and Inflation, 1990-2005 [FairEconomy] (Thanks to something_amazing!)

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