Eight chief executives of US corporations were invited to appear before a senate hearing last week to discuss the scabrous issue of excessive executive pay. None of them showed up, perhaps wisely. How do you defend a $40m (£25m) or $50m pay packet unless with the same kind of lame excuse voiced by football managers, that it is the market rate?
Those who did turn up, including representatives of some of the biggest pension funds in the US, were less afraid to put their opinions forward. Sean Harrigan, president of the administrative board of California's public employee pension fund, the largest in America and increasingly aggressive on the issue of spiralling executive salaries, testified that chief executives now average 400 times what a production worker earns.

The yawning gap and the continuing escalation of chief executive salaries "continues to have an impact on investor confidence" he said.

The refusal of the eight chief executives to appear at the senate hearing caused barely a ruffle in the American media - despite the sense of outrage that many investors and ordinary workers are beginning to feel.

But the issue is beginning to gain traction in a country where the average chief executive salary makes those in Britain look like pocket change. According to a recent survey published in USA Today, the average compensation package for chief executives in the top 100 American companies was $33.4m in 2002 - nearly one-third of them banked more than $50m in salaries, bonuses and shares.

Over the year, executives took a 15% pay hike, compared with the average worker's rise of just 3.2%. As for the eight who failed to show, let them be named and shamed here: Larry Ellison of Oracle, Michael Eisner of Walt Disney, Leo Mullin of Delta Air Lines, Edward Breen of Tyco, David Cote of Honeywell International, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems, Jeff Barbakow of Tenet healthcare and the former General Electric chief executive Jack Welch.

In the aftermath of the financial scandals that knocked corporate America sideways last year, the greed engendered by massive compensation packages was widely identified as vital, blinding good judgment and tempting executives to cross the line.

Alan Greenspan, the venerable head of the Federal Reserve, spoke of the culture of "infectious greed" during the 1990s. Disgust has been routinely expressed at the massive awards to the likes of Kenneth Lay of Enron and Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom even as their companies crashed.

Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor, has called the issue of executive compensation "the acid test of reform". At his annual meeting he told shareholders to "rise up" against greedy chief executives. And they seem to be taking note.

A little over a week ago at Hollinger International, owner of the Daily Telegraph, shareholders forced a series of concessions on to Lord Black, regularly accused of running the company like a private fiefdom. They included a cap on the "management fees" he takes from the firm and an independent review of a $73m payment he shared with his lieutenants after the sale of the company's Canadian newspaper assets.

The shareholding company that brought the bonus payment into the public view, Tweedy Browne, is not otherwise known for its aggressive nature, suggesting that the new activism is catching on.

Richard Grasso, who runs the New York stock exchange, is coming under fire for the size of his $10m salary and the fact that he sits on the board of the retailer Home Depot, one of the companies listed on the market.

At American Airlines, the chairman and chief executive, Don Carty, was forced to stand down earlier this month after an astonishingly crass move. Just a day after wringing $1.8bn in pay cuts and job losses from the company's workforce to keep the airline in business, Mr Carty quietly put in place some lucrative retention bonuses for himself and a handful of senior executives. It cost him his job.

His replacements have listened to the critics. Gerlad Arprey, the new chief executive, will not take a pay rise on the salary he had previously earned as chief operating officer. Edward Brennan, taking over as chairman, will continue to receive his existing director's fee but take nothing extra for his promotion.

They are not the only ones to bend to the demands of investors. Mr Mullin at struggling Delta Air Lines pledged not to take some of the compensation his contract allows in 2003. He is giving up a $1m bonus and long-term awards that would have been worth a further $8m after his 2002 package stirred anger in congress.

Sanford Weill of Citigroup and a number of other banking chiefs are foregoing bonuses.

The highest paid executive last year, Mr Barbakow of the Tenet Healthcare hospital chain, made an eye-popping $189m, of which $111m came from exercising share options. Mr Barbakow was forced out of the company last week amid investor concerns about the its slumping share regulators investigated the business. Concerns about its quality of care also arose after the FBI raided a Tenet hospital for information about allegations of unnecessary procedures by two doctors.

Mr Welch at GE agreed to give up some of his more extravagant retirement perks including fresh flowers for his apartment, New York Knicks and Wimbledon tickets and a laundry service.

A shareholder in the company John Hancock Financial Services last week filed a civil lawsuit asking a clutch of senior executives to return some of their pay. David D'Alessandro, the company's chief executive, took a pay rise last year from $8.2m to $21.7m despite profits falling by 15% and a share price that wilted by 32%.

But the disparity between executive pay and the rewards for shareholders is still glaringly obvious in many companies. Michael Eisner, who runs Walt Disney, was awarded a $5m bonus last year despite the company's share price falling by 34%.

How long the issue will stay uppermost in the minds of the US public is uncertain and the long term ability of either shareholders or workers to suppress pay is doubtful.

Americans are less righteous than the British about the mere principle of excessive pay. Once investors too are doing well again then the issue is likely to die down and inflation return. That could be sooner than many had thought. The Dow Jones index on Wall Street last week completed its first three-month rise in two years raising the prospect that chief executives might be let off the hook before any lasting damage is done to their bank accounts.