While lucratively compensated, the STAR 50 chiefs are underpaid compared to their peers in U.S. industry. D.C. In 1980, the typical chief executive's income was 42 times higher than the average blue-collar worker, Rees said. By 1990, the gap was even wider, with CEOs making 84 times more than the average worker. Last year, the average CEO made 475 times more than the average blue-collar worker. Compensation experts said the escalating pay scales for executives have been caused by a shift in how they are paid.
Corporations now are more likely to tie an executive's pay to the performance of the company.
Fields said that more than half an executive's pay is now tied to company performance. The top 10 in the STAR 50 don't reveal a distinct correlation between pay and performance. Five of the executives had compensation increases that outpaced his company's performance, while five lagged behind. Wittig's pay increased more than 222 percent, while Western Resource's net income decreased by more than 100 percent. Wittig's big payday was related to an agreement that the company made to compensate him for benefits he lost when he left a higher-paying Wall Street job in 1995.