It's been an ugly year or two. Those of us lucky enough to have hung onto our jobs may not have received salary increases and we may not even be too upset about that, all things considered.

In loftier corporate levels, though, CEOs operate in a different setting. You probably won't be surprised to learn that CEO compensation has kept rising, in general, even in this crummy economy. Take Chesapeake Energy's (NYSE:CHK) Aubrey McClendon, for example, whose compensation was in the neighborhood of $25 million in 2007 and then topped $100 million in 2008, according to CNNMoney. Yikes.

Still, here's some uplifting news: Some CEOs saw a decrease in their base salaries. Check it out:

Company

Recent CEO Base Pay Cut

General Motors

Cut to just $1

Ford Motor (NYSE:F)

Reduced by 30%

FedEx (NYSE:FDX)

Reduced by 20%

American Express (NYSE:AXP)

Reduced by 10%

Motorola (NYSE:MOT)

Reduced by 25%

EMC (NYSE:EMC)

Reduced by 15%

Cummins (NYSE:CMI)

Reduced by 10%

Source: Harvard Business Review.

It seems that a full 373 public U.S. companies reduced their CEO's pay between last June and this past June. Of course, that's out of many thousands of companies, so it's not that impressive.

What to make of it
CEO compensation has been rising so rapidly and seems so out of control that I suppose we should be happy for whatever meager signs of rationality we see. But temper even that, because while some base pay amounts may be reduced, many CEOs will still see their total pay rise due to payments in other forms, such as stock and bonuses.

Our outrage is deserved. That's why we might want to pay attention to say-on-pay proposals that are becoming widespread at lots of companies. Until shareholders finally put their feet down and demand greater accountability, you can expect to see obscene compensation packages continue.

Sick of paying CEOs for bad performance? Fool Alyce Lomax shines the light on the disconnect between high CEO pay and bad stock performance.