Americans Think Income Gap is Only 30-1

A scant few weeks before elections in which America's wealthy will spend a little of their vast fortunes to extend their stranglehold on the nation's economic and political life, a Harvard University survey shows ordinary Americans know very little about how really rich the very rich are in this country.

Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton examined public opinion about executive compensation. They asked about 55,000 people around the globe, including 1,581 participants in the U.S., how much money they thought corporate CEOs made compared with unskilled factory workers.

The median American guessed executives out-earned factory workers roughly 30-to-1 and thought a fairer ratio would be 7-1. The actual estimate is that American CEOs out-earn assembly line workers 354-to-1.