In case you thought the United States was unique in how richly it pays its CEOs, take comfort in these figures from Canada's Financial Post:

The [Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives] released figures yesterday showing that individual total compensation packages in 2007 for the top 100 CEOs at publicly listed Canadian companies increased an average of 22% to $10.4-million as the economy thundered along. This compared with a pay hike of 3.2% to $40,237 for the average Canadian worker during 2007.

That gap has been growing amid increased competition for companies to attract strong leadership. In 2007, Canada's top 50 CEOs earned 398 times more than the average worker, compared with 85 times in 1995. Mr. MacKenzie said between 1998 and 2007 the average compensation of top CEOs increased by 147%, adjusted for inflation. This compared with a 3% decline in inflation-adjusted weekly wages for average Canadians and a 6% rise for those on the minimum wage.

Robert H. Frank at Cornell argues in The New York Times that Congress should not limit executive pay:

So why not limit executive pay? The problem is that although every company wants a talented chief executive, there are only so many to go around. Relative salaries guide job choices. If salaries were capped at, say, $2 million annually, the most talented candidates would have less reason to seek the positions that make best use of their talents.

More troubling, if C.E.O. pay were capped and pay for other jobs was not, the most talented potential managers would be more likely to become lawyers or hedge fund operators. Can anyone think that would be a good thing?

In large companies, even small differences in managerial talent can make an enormous difference. Consider a company with $10 billion in annual earnings that has narrowed its C.E.O. search to two finalists. If one would make just a handful of better decisions each year than the other, the company’s annual earnings might easily be 3 percent — or $30 million — higher under the better candidate’s leadership. That same candidate couldn’t possibly make as much difference at a company with only $10 million in earnings.

That’s why companies where executive decisions have the greatest impact tend to outbid others in hiring the ablest managers.

One reason for these trends is that companies themselves have become bigger. As the New York University economists Xavier Gabaix and Augustin Landier argue in a 2006 paper, C.E.O. pay in a competitive market should vary in direct proportion to the market capitalization of the company. They found that C.E.O. compensation at large companies grew sixfold between 1980 and 2003, the same as the market-cap growth of these businesses.

Beyond growth in company size, executive mobility has also increased. In past decades, about the only way to become a C.E.O. was to have spent one’s entire career with the company. With only a handful of plausible internal candidates, pay was essentially a matter of bilateral negotiation between the board and the chosen. Increasingly, however, hiring committees believe that a talented executive from one industry can also deliver top performance in another.

This new spot market for talent has affected executive salaries in much the same way that free agency affected the salaries of professional athletes.

From Newsday's James Bernstein:

David H. Brooks, charged with looting the Westbury-based body armor company he founded to pay for a lavish lifestyle, has been under house arrest in Manhattan for nearly a year now and is out of public sight.

Except on the Internet.

In the past few weeks, angry investors said yesterday, Web postings have gone up portraying Brooks as a "humanitarian" who has "saved thousands of lives" by developing body-armor technology, and who is involved in a mission in Malawi, Africa, "offering generous donations to help aid the grief-stricken area."

When this humanitarian wasn't saving the world through his generosity, his federal indictment claims he was using DHB Industries Inc., now called Point Blank Solutions, money to pay for personal expenses like an $8 million bat mitzvah and a $101,000 bejeweled belt buckle.

An excellent contemporary and historical overview of the current executive compensation issue by David S. Hilzenrath has these three suggestions and caveats for shaking things up:

First, short of a revolution in the way corporations are governed, there are efforts afoot to make it harder for executives to profit from mismanagement while investors are left holding the bag.

Some shareholder activists are calling on boards to hold incentive pay hostage to a company's long-term fortunes, and investor anger could put pressure on directors to comply. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) plans to ask shareholders to vote next year on resolutions urging boards to take two steps: stretch out the payment of annual bonuses over multiple years and hold on to a significant portion of equity awards until the executive has been gone from the company for two years.

The resolutions are purely advisory.

Second, through its bailout programs, the government can set conditions for companies that accept federal funds. For example, the government is requiring participating firms to eliminate incentives for executives to take "unnecessary and excessive risks that threaten the value of the financial institution." It's unclear how companies will apply such a nebulous standard. In the spirit of both the AFSCME proposal and the Treasury mandate, the investment firm Morgan Stanley recently said it will make a portion of annual bonuses subject to recapture by the company.

Third, either Congress or the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could make it easier for big shareholders to put their own candidates for board seats on the corporate ballot. In theory, that could make directors much more accountable. For it to work, shareholders, especially institutions like pension and mutual funds, would have to take a more active role than many have had the stomach to play in the past.

The plan could backfire. If executives are forced to confront shareholders with real power, would they be any less motivated to deliver short-term results, or the illusion of short-term results -- even if those compromise the company's interests over the long run?

The Conference Board released its annual Top Executive Compensation report Wednesday. The not-for-profit claims that changes in CEO compensation were already underway this year - but unless one believes minor shifts in the allocation of huge pay packages qualify as true "changes," I see nothing but the status quo.

Key findings of the report include:

    * Compensation mix is reallocated towards stock. Almost all industries show a reallocation of compensation towards stock and away from total cash compensation and stock options. In financial services (non-banks), for example, the average percent of total compensation delivered in non-equity incentives fell by 2.62 percentage points (from 24.19 to 21.57).
    * Cash may be losing share-but the median CEO still earns more of it. Median cash compensation increased in more than two thirds of the industries studied (as did total compensation overall). The largest median gainer in cash compensation is insurance (up by 34.39 percent to $1,227,371). The only notable negative is construction, an outlier showing a 22.36 percent decrease.
    * Food and tobacco executives are the top earners. Among the 22 industries represented, food and tobacco shows the highest median CEO total compensation. It tops the list with $6.34 million in median total compensation, and $2.7 million in median total cash compensation, followed by utilities, insurance, and financial services (non-banks).
    * CEOs already have plenty of "skin in the game." Of the largest 10 percent of companies in the sample, the median CEO holds almost 100 times (99.97 percent) of his/her salary in total stock and stock options holdings in the company. Across industry, the largest median multiple (94.44) is seen in the financial services industry (non-banks), the smallest is commercial banks (23.31).

From Michelle Singletary of The Washington Post:

If we now have an economy in which we can’t allow certain industries or companies to fail, then we need better governance over executive compensation. We need to place some checks and balances so that top executives aren’t allowed to run firms into the ground while enjoying outrageous pay packages no matter how their companies perform.

Perhaps one way is to focus more on the boards that approve executive pay. Last year, companies in the S&P 500 index spent an average of more than $2 million on board compensation, according to preliminary findings of a director pay survey by the Corporate Library, an independent research firm. The median total compensation for individual directors of S&P 500 companies was just under $200,000.

Despite the economic downturn and a yearlong recession, the pay for directors has gone up. The median increase in total board compensation was nearly 11 percent. The median increase in compensation for individual directors was almost 12 percent. This is the third year of double-digit increases for directors and boards.

Is it no wonder that executive pay is so high? The people determining how much executives will get are lapping up the money too.

From Nicholas D. Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist at The New York Times, an amusing but saddening discussion of CEO pay:

Are you capable of taking a perfectly good 158-year-old company and turning it into dust? If so, then you may not be earning up to your full potential.

You should be raking it in like Richard Fuld, the longtime chief of Lehman Brothers. He took home nearly half-a-billion dollars in total compensation between 1993 and 2007.

Last year, Mr. Fuld earned about $45 million, according to the calculations of Equilar, an executive pay research company. That amounts to roughly $17,000 an hour to obliterate a firm. If you’re willing to drive a company into the ground for less, apply by calling Lehman Brothers at (212) 526-7000.

Oh, nevermind.

As Warren Buffett has said, “in judging whether corporate America is serious about reforming itself, C.E.O. pay remains the acid test.” It’s a test that corporate America is failing.

An excerpt from columnist Bill Virgin of the Seattle PI:

How do I get me one of those CEO jobs like at Washington Mutual, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac where I get paid millions to run a company into the ground and millions more to leave?

The job of running an American corporation with billions in assets and thousands of employees is reserved for a select few with the necessary experience, expertise, vision and wisdom to handle such a grave responsibility -- or else, for those with the right connections and friends.

Who are these friends who are handing out the company's money like that?

The directors -- the people who are ultimately responsible for overseeing operation of the company and looking out for the interests of shareholders.

Damn fine job they're doing of it. Can't someone stop them? Who voted for those guys, anyway?

You did -- if you're a stockholder.

Me? I'd never vote for people who did foolish things like that. Why didn't we know about it?

You did -- if you read the proxy statement that spells out in numbing detail the compensation package -- salary, bonuses, options, retirement plan, perks -- for people such as now-deposed WaMu CEO Kerry Killinger, as well as what they get if they're fired, they leave or the company gets sold. Not that anyone reads that stuff when the company is doing well -- which, lately, it hasn't been.