Final answer:
As of May 2014, CEOs earned vastly more than fast food cooks, with the disparity in incomes being a stark example of the widening wealth gap over the preceding decades, reaching a point where a CEO could earn hundreds of times more than an average worker.
Step-by-step explanation:
In May 2014, the typical CEO earned significantly more than fast food cooks. The income inequality that has been growing since the 1980s saw CEO salaries skyrocket compared to that of average workers. For instance, the chief executive of Wal-Mart in 2005 earned about 950 times what the company's average associate made, and the head of the construction company K. B. Homes made a staggering 4000 times what the average construction worker earned. The gap widened markedly from the late 1970s, when the salary of a corporate executive was approximately forty times that of a factory worker to the end of the 1980s, when CEOs made a hundred times more than their entry-level workers. By the year 2012, the average CEO was making 350 times the salary of the average worker.