But even some conservatives have gotten edgy over the tremendous growth in CEO pay, noted Irwin Stelzer in the public affairs journal, The Public Interest, earlier this year. Indeed, it seems to have actually helped boost pay. From 1994 to 1995, mega-grants grew 38 percent, while small grants grew 32 percent. Sabo's bill wouldn't deal with stock options, but would cap tax deductibility on all cash pay, including bonuses. A firm would have an incentive to bring up the bottom, if not slow down the rise at the top.
People can and do move from pumping gas or waiting tables to executive suites.
Peter Rachleff, a Macalester College history professor and a labor union activist, takes the opposite view on why CEO pay keeps rising so quickly and attempts like Sabo's keep failing. The Congress members Sabo is trying to convince are more beholden to top executives than to their less-wealthy workers, both unsalaried and salaried, Rachleff said. Even if workers were peeved about executive pay, they might not be too vocal about it. In an era of corporate downsizing, job insecurity has been cited by economists as a reason for workers' seeming unwillingness to demand wage increases, even though unemployment is running at a 25-year low.