The subprime is not a frequent occurence, but there are many occurences where markets rise/fall very fast and there will always be some trader on the right side. So this makes a trader earning more than CEO a frequent occurence?
I agree that public companies only disclose CEO salaries, but remember internally the CEO will know who is getting paid what. Considering when things are going down the CEO will be the first to have his/her head on the block I am guessing they would want to get paid the most.