Expanding CEO pay packages in the form of stock options and long-term incentive plans -- pay executives get after they hit a specific performance target or work a certain number of years -- has further increased the disparity between executive and worker compensation. Since 1978, executive pay at American firms has grown 127 times faster that worker pay, according to Roosevelt. In fact, the ratio of CEO-to-worker pay has increased 1,000 percent since 1950, according to Bloomberg.
