CEO pay in the U.S. is now 400+ times that of the average company employee, up from a meager 40X as recently as 1980. According to the USA Today, CEO salaries and bonuses surged 15% in a year when salaries for rank-and-file workers averaged 3.2% gains.

The Chicago Tribune reported on November 17th that incomes in Illinois are sinking. Median household incomes in Illinois have dropped 12 percent since 1999. Nearly one in five Illinois manufacturing jobs disappeared between 2001 and 2003. In the Chicago region nearly one in three working people is employed in a low wage service job, earning an average of $21,000 per year, less than what Alex Rodriguez makes in a single Yankees game.

Rodriguez pulls in $16,492.58 per inning; $37,145.65 per at bat; and $276,699.03 per Yankee win!