Whatever the reasons, executive pay soared in recent years while the inflation-adjusted wages of manufacturing workers declined by roughly 10 percent in the last decade.

The rise, averaging nearly 3.5 percent a year, was more than twice the gain of the top-earning group at a time when pay soared for top executives.

- George Eaton at the Staggers says the High Pay Commission report shows how executive pay has soared.

In the 1990's, executive stock options proliferated - and executive pay soared, rising to 367 times the average worker's pay by the early years of this decade.

Unsurprisingly, as tutors fulfill increasingly diverse roles, their pay has soared.

His pay soared under a contract signed in 1999 at the height of the Wall Street boom.

Retirement perquisites became more popular at the same time that executive pay was soaring and many stocks were gaining 20 percent in value every year.

His pay soared to £230,000 - a rise of 30 per cent in a year.

The number of jobs in financial services has shrunk in the last 15 years, even as average pay has soared in that industry.

For those who were also in office in 1996, pay soared 37.8 percent.