What is your source for private sector increase of only 8%? I have been following “Forbes CEO Compensation” for a few years, and perhaps they have been doing that to their low level workers, but sure as heck not to themselves!! Of course if you include minimum wage jobs which had NO increase for years you may be right.
My source is the NY Times article posted. I just tried to revisit it, but one now has to log in. I swear the entire article was available at the time I posted. The article, as I recall, gave annual compensation rates of increase for the past decade — I merely multiplied them to determine the net increases over the 10-year period.
CEO compensation, while hefty, is insignificant in terms of national averages.
I must admit that I don’t know whether the Times reported real rates of increase (i.e., rates adjusted for inflation) or raw rates — they didn’t specify. It doesn’t matter for purposes of comparing private and public sectors, but it might for purpose of generating numbers that are familiar to you.