Worker Pay vs. Executive Pay Ratio between average CEO pay and average U.S. worker pay: 319 to 14 Ratio between average CEO pay and minimum wage: 740 to 15

A new report out today from the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) shows the extent to which Wall Street's continued practice of paying out big figure bonuses to the architects of our economic collapse continues. The study found that the CEOs of the 20 financial industry firms that received the largest bailouts were paid nearly 40 percent more last year than other CEOs at Standard & Poor's 500 companies. The average CEO pay was 430 times larger than for the pay received by the average workers.

The new report shows how many of the CEOs responsible for our country's economic downfall are now using the crisis as a jumping off point for even greater personal windfalls. Some of the study's findings:

• $32 million: The amount the top five executives at each of the 20 banks that accepted the most federal bailout money received in personal compensation from 2006 to 2008.


• 1,000 years: The number of years 100 average workers would have to work for to make as much as these 100 executives made in three.
• $90 million: That's how much stock options soared in 2009 for nine of the 20 bailout banks, based on IPS's examination of corporate proxy statements.
• 160,000: The number of employees who have been laid off since January 1, 2008 at the top 20 financial industry recipients of taxpayer funded bailout money.
• A quarter-billion dollars: The total amount of compensation the 20 CEOs at these bailed-out companies made. When you break it down, the payout "rewarded" to each exec averages $13.8 million.

This alarming study should serve as yet another reminder that giving astoundingly huge rewards to corporate executives only serves to give executives a much greater incentive to behave outrageously--and engage in reckless behaviors that put American taxpayers and our economy at great financial risk. Download the report "America's Bailout Barons: Taxpayers, High Finance, and the CEO Pay Bubble."