Don't Forget Your Place, Peasants

The heads of the nation’s top companies got the biggest raises in recent memory last year after taking a hiatus during the recession.

At a time most employees can barely remember their last substantial raise, median CEO pay jumped 27% in 2010 as the executives’ compensation started working its way back to prerecession levels, a USA TODAY analysis of data from GovernanceMetrics International found. Workers in private industry, meanwhile, saw their compensation grow just 2.1% in the 12 months ended December 2010, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The article goes on to explain that the raises come from the cuts and layoffs, not recovering from the economic downturn.  So yeah, it doesn't look like big business has learned anything.  It's still all about maximizing profit on the backs of workers.  The needs of the few outweigh the pain of the many, and the fat cats have the audacity to look puzzled when the common folk are outraged.