A recent study has found the wallets of top executives in America is getting fatter and fatter. The news isn�t very surprising, especially given the fact that more and more of America�s wealth is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people.

But while many want to tout boom times for the U.S. economy, "A Decade of Executive Excess: The 1990s," a joint project of the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy, a grass-roots Boston-based organization that exposes highlighting economic inequality, helps provide a little more balance. It gives an idea of how ordinary people are faring and how those at the top are doing�the gap is huge.

According to the report, average compensation packages for the top two executives at America�s 365 biggest public companies skyrocketed from $1.8 million in 1990 to $10.6 million in 1998. Add it up and you get the equivalent of a 481 percent raise.

The Associated Press reported Aug. 29 that Conference Board statistics on executive compensation, salaries and cash bonuses only, showed manufacturing industry executives averaged $783,000 in 1997.

Average worker pay rose from $22,952 a year in 1990 to $29,267 in 1998, according to "A Decade of Executive Excess."

When you look at the numbers, raises for American factory workers have averaged 28 percent since 1990, just ahead of a 22.5 percent inflation rate. Meanwhile top level corporate executives saw their pay more than quadruple, according to the report.

"There�s a big fairness problem here. While the headlines are saying the economy is doing so wonderfully, the benefits of that are not being spread around equitably,�� said report author Sarah Anderson, in an AP article.

Executive pay also includes salaries, bonuses and the value of stock options exercised by CEOs and their aides. Critics of the report say stock options fluctuate, so executives benefit when times are good and don�t do so good, when times aren�t so good. Anyway executives earn their pay, critics add.

Other observers are right when they say such excesses hurt employee morale. Plus, they warn, major stock options may make CEOs take routes that are popular for investors�regardless of the long term impact on the company, community, or workers.

Those concerned about the growing pay gap between workers and big bosses, are right to be concerned. It�s obscene to see a CEO collect millions, while companies are charging more for things like health insurance and providing little security for the futures of workers. So while the CEOs reap big bucks, if greener pastures can be found somewhere else, firms are choosing to go for the gold and leaving communities to fend for themselves.

It is also a shame that while the big boys have made more money, mo� money hasn�t meant more compassion. One 1990s hot button issue was welfare reform, where cutting help for the poor was the way to score political points.

Today welfare rolls are way down but activists say the low numbers hide problems people who don�t get promised training, daycare for children and real help face making a transition from welfare to work.