Last year, chief executive officers of 500 companies were given an average 2.6% raise to approximately $10,544,470 ? 344 times the pay of the average American worker. Just 30-odd years ago CEO?s made only 30 to 40 times higher than the average. A 2008 IPS report has found that there are five main tax and accounting loopholes that allow CEOs to garner such huge salaries, with such low levels of taxation. IPS analyst Sarah Anderson hopes that a change of president and a potentially Democratic congress may help to get some legislation passed on the existing loopholes. Several bills have been proposed in recent years, but none have passed both houses. Ms. Anderson suspects that nothing will happen this year, as politicians up for election wish to protect their CEO campaign backers.
See "How long will politicians look the other way on CEO pay?", David R. Francis, The Christian Science Monitor, August 26, 2008