FairEconomy.org - Labor Day report: CEO: worker pay ratio shoots up to 431 : 1: "The ratio of average CEO pay (now $11.8 million) to worker pay (now $27,460) spiked up from 301-to-1 in 2003 to 431-to-1 in 2004. If the minimum wage had risen as fast as CEO pay since 1990, the lowest paid workers in the US would be earning $23.03 an hour today, not $5.15 an hour. [At top defense contractors] average CEO pay increased 200% from 2001 to 2004, versus 7% for all CEOs....

[T]he report singled out for praise two bosses worthy of membership in an ''Executive Pay Hall of Fame.'' Brad Anderson, CEO of consumer electronics retailer Best Buy in 2003 decided to forgo $7.5 million in stock options and instead gave them to ''outstanding non-executive employees,'' the report said. At supermarket chain Whole Foods Market, it added, CEO John Mackey's pay is limited to no more than 14 times the average workers' pay."