[I]n 1949, the highest paid CEO in America was Charlie Wilson of General Motors, who earned $586,100 in salary, bonus and stock. That's roughly equivalent to what some of the better-compensated CEO's are making today.

But what did Wilson pay in taxes? $430,350.

Times have changed.

That's a tax rate of 73% (the mere expression of which just caused heart attacks among the Republicans' biggest benefactors) so Gladwell is certainly correct that times have changed in that respect.

However, to say that Wilson's paltry half-million is "roughly equivalent to some of the better-compensated CEO's are making today" is ridiculously incorrect. According to this calculator, $586,100 in 1949 dollars is equal to a little over $4,940,000 in 2005 dollars, and this Forbes slide show lists the 10 biggest CEO paycheck for 2005:

1.  Richard D. Fairbank  Capital One Financial $249.42 million
2.  Terry S. Semel       Yahoo                  230.55 million
3.  Henry R. Silverman   Cendant                139.96 million
4.  Bruce Karatz         KB Home                135.53 million
5.  Richard S. Feld Jr.  Lehman Bros. Holdings  122.67 million
6.  Ray R. Irani         Occidental Petroleum    80.73 million
7.  Lawrence J. Ellison  Oracle                  75.33 million
8.  John W. Thompson     Symantec                71.84 million
9.  Edwin M. Crawford    Caremark Rx             69.66 million
10. Angelo R. Mozilo     Countrywide Financial   68.95 million

In the company of these guys, Charlie Wilson's under $5 million isn't even in the same ballpark.

How could Gladwell have been so wrong?

Addenda: In 1949, the marginal tax rate for those earning more than $400,000 was 82.13%, "subject to a maximum effective rate limitation equal to 77% of statutory 'net income.'" Today, the top rate is 35%.

Incidentally, according to United For A Fair Economy:

In 2004, average total compensation for CEOs of 367 leading US corporations was $11.8 million, up from $8.1 million in 2003.

The ratio of CEO pay to average production worker pay increased from 301-to-1 in 2003 to 431-to-1 in 2004. While this is still smaller than the 2000 peak of 525-to-1, it is more than 10 times as large as the 1982 ratio of 42-to-1. Moreover, the gap has widened sharply in the past two years, as executives have moved to cash in stock options.

If the average pay of workers had risen at the same rate as CEO pay, it would have been $110,000 in 2004, instead of $27,000, and if the minimum wage had risen at a similar rate, it would be $23.03 instead of $5.15.