1 The Northern Pacific Railway (NP) completed the third independent transcontinental railroad on August 22, 1883, linking Chicago with Seattle. 2  The Completion Ceremony was held on September 8, 1883, with former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant contributing to driving the Final Spike.
The average pay package last year was $22.6 million, up from $20.7 million in 2013, according to an analysis of companies' proxy disclosures by executive-compensation data firm Equilar. The average gain in total compensation for the 200 highest-paid U.S. CEOs worked out to 9.1 percent last year.
But pay increases and ratios only tell part of the story. The stark differences are made concrete when translated into dollars and cents. In 1965, CEOs earned an average of $832,000 annually compared to $40,200 for workers. In 2014, CEO pay had risen to an average of $16,316,000 compared to only $53,200 for workers.