The concentration of wealth at Applebee's

Title: Applebee's execs get $1.5M in bonuses
Source: The Business Journal of Kansas City
Date: February 23, 2005

From the article:

Applebee's International Inc. has granted its five top-compensated executives a total of nearly $1.5 million in 2004 cash bonuses.

The Overland Park-based casual dining chain (Nasdaq: APPB) will pay CEO Lloyd Hill the largest bonus at $554,500, the company said in a Wednesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Also:

Hill, whose salary was reported as $670,000 in the company's most recent proxy statement, will get a 2005 base salary of $800,000, cash bonus potential of as much as 125 percent of base salary, stock option grants of 141,000 shares and restricted stock grants of 27,000 shares.

This is the concentration of wealth at work. The CEO received a base pay increase of $130,000 -- 20% in one year. Did the rank and file workers see such an increase? Of course not. The cash bonus that the CEO received nearly doubled his salary. Did rank and file workers see a 100% bonus? Of course not.

Because of this trend, a small number of people in American society take more and more and more of the income, leaving less and less for everyone else. See This page for details.