A new study found that during the past eleven years, revenues among U.S. publicly traded companies increased 93 percent while the highest paid executive's compensation increased 24.7 percent. However, during the most recent 12 months, the study found that revenues increased just 2.8 percent while executive compensation increased 20.5 percent. Clearly, this can be attributed to the downturn in the economy, but it only further highlights the fact that executive compensation still isn't tied to corporate performance as it should be in an ideal scenario.

Fortunately, boards of directors are trying to change up the trend. The study showed that compensation continued to trend away from a guaranteed base salary towards a compensation package consisting of stock options and restricted stock awards. Unfortunately, compensation experts often fail to set the standards high enough to make any difference - free stock is an incentive, but executives are still guaranteed a healthy base because the options are so in-the-money. There have only been a few companies who have gotten it right by setting staggered option rewards with higher strike prices.

The study reflects data from 45 publicly traded companies randomly selected from about 6,500 companies that report compensation data to the SEC.