Executive compensation remains a much-debated topic in the United States. Over the past four decades, compensation for CEOs of U.S. corporations has risen dramatically, both in real dollars and in terms of worker’s earnings, where in 1980 the average CEO of a major corporation earned 42 times the average pay of an hourly worker. The debate has reached Washington, where in 2009 President Obama imposed a pay limit of $500,000 for executives of companies that received federal bailout money. Write a brief essay discussing executive compensation, explaining whether you believe executive pay should be limited. Should the government be involved in compensation decisions of private corporations? What has happened to the ratio of CEO pay to hourly-worker pay since 1980, and how does this compare to other countries?