Workers lose jobs, CEOs get pay raise

CEOs of the 50 US companies that laid off the most workers between November 2008 and April 2010 were paid $12 million on average in 2009, or 42 percent more than the average across the Standard & Poor's 500, according to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington think tank. CEOs who laid off the most people brought home pay that was significantly higher. The study found that pay of the CEOs of the 50 companies that announced the largest layoffs rose 7 percent in 2009, at a time when overall compensation for the CEOs of the S&P 500 companies fell 11 percent.

The cuts also came at a time when the companies were increasing profit -- 72 percent of companies announced planned layoffs even while earnings were rising.

"There is still this general notion that when CEOs slash a lot of jobs they are being the tough guy, making the hard decisions necessarily to make their company lean and mean...It was more a way to boost their profits in the short terms and line the pockets of their CEOs" said Sarah Anderson, global economy project director at IPS and the study's primary author.