CEOs of companies listed on the S&P 500 earned an average of $18.8 million last year, up about 21% from the previous year, Times recently reported. This jump in executive pay came despite an 18% drop in the market index in 2022.

Many of these CEOs were gifted generous stock options by their boards as a reward for steering their companies through the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. But the ratio of CEO pay to the typical earnings of company employees has been trending upwards for decades, due largely to an increase in the use of stock-based compensation. READ MORE