[quote=The-Shoveler]It’s all about the margins, next guy up the ladder needs a little more to differ from the guy below etc..
Effect would probably be a lot less the further you go up the ladder.

But these days there are a lot more people being reduced to the lower rungs.[/quote]

Actually has you go up the latter the effect is more pronounced. The reality is sans buying entire businesses like the bankrupt Hostess for cash, the money is irrelevant past $25 million yet, particularly in public companies, and steadily creeping into top level government entities, the compensation issue is a massive ego item and has greatly become distorted and promotes short term thinking.

While the lower end has been compressed, the upper tend is trying to distinguish value from something that marginally has no value beyond a number on a piece of paper.

In general their base pay is relatively appropriate but there is increasing a perverse nepotism in executive compensation increasing compensation thru stock that isn’t performance based.