Despite Economic Hard Times, CEO Pay Increases

Why is this not entirely surprising? Despite stagnant unemployment numbers and continuing economic hard times thanks to the recession and corporate greed, CEO's paycheck are not hurting.

In fact, they're "climbing," according to this article from the WSJ, right back into into the healthy millions. Lucky them:

The chief executives of the largest U.S. public companies enjoyed bigger paydays in their latest fiscal year, as share prices recovered and profits soared amid the country's slow emergence from recession.

 At these 456 companies, the median pretax value of CEO salaries, bonuses and long-term incentives, such as grants of stock and stock options, rose by 3% to $7.23 million, according to an analysis of their latest proxy filings for The Wall Street Journal by consulting firm Hay Group.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country has yet to really notice our "emergence" from recession. Read the full story here.