Here is the story in The Business Journal …
Awarding a 32 percent compensation increase — from $16.9 million in 2011 to $22.4 million last year — even amid record profits is a tough one to explain given the current situation at Caterpillar … a situation that has up to 300 South Milwaukee employees worried about layoffs.
A Caterpillar spokesman pointed out that 2012 was a record year for company revenue, which increased 10 percent to $65.9 billion, and earnings per share, which were up 15 percent to $8.48. Profit was up 15 percent to $5.7 billion.
“Based on our pay-for-performance philosophy, executive compensation for last year was in-line with our results,” said spokesman Jim Dugan in an email to The Business Journal.
That may be true, but …
South Milwaukee Blog 
It’s hard to wrap my head around one person making that much money!!!
That must be nice. I just got a 2.5% raise and that is because the company that I’m with did exceptionally well. Nobody should be justifying a 32% raise, especially if just the raise itself could be compensation for 70-85+ highly skilled workers and/or more workers that are lower skilled!
And here is the funny thing: excessive executive compensation occurs mostly in English speaking countries. You can look this up. Here is the really wierd part, happens in Canada, except for Quebec. Not in France, or Germany, or Japan. Mostly English speaking counties. I’m guessing it has to do more with some aspect of social customs rather than the beauty of the language.