Rising price index 'cut' executive salaries

The consumer price index (CPI) made significant cuts in managerial buying power, despite sizable increase in compensation, a national survey of executive salaries and bonuses indicates.

According to the hay Group of management consultants, most companies increased executive pay by an average of 10.5 percent while the CPI increased 14 .7 during the survey period, the year ending May 1, 1980. In 1979 the CPI increased 10.4 percent while management compensation managed to stay ahead of it , increasing an average of 11 percent.

The survey covered more than 500,000 executives and supervisors i n over 800 organizations.