Taken as a whole, very high CEO to worker pay ratios can signal systemic wealth disparity. CEO pay has been outstripping executive and worker pay year over year by a wide margin because of structural issues related to "peer group benchmarking" (the very way CEOs are paid). This structural pay inequity is unrelated to CEO performance.

Pension fund managers will go into Barrick's annual meeting in Toronto on Wednesday April 24 to oppose executive John Thornton's bonus payment of $11.9-million. They also are expected to vote against the re-election of board members who recommended the payment. The way executives at Barrick are enriching themselves -- while most Canadians have a hard time economically -- offers an excellent opportunity for public interest groups and the public to pressure the business community and government to bring executive compensation back under control.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) put on a clinic in public and media relations when it released its report on CEO pay. While many of the titans of commerce were heli-skiing, jetboating, or lounging on private islands, the CCPC had the news media mostly to itself. And boy did it capitalize.