WHY ARE DIVIDENDS SO LOW AND EXECUTIVE PAY SO HIGH?

As a dividend investor who actually reads the reports from the companies I own shares of, it's always bothered me that corporate executives as a whole seem to have such generous pay packages while shareholders receive such low dividend yields.  As of this writing, the average dividend yield of the S&P 500 is 1.76%.  Why is that?  If the companies can afford to pay their top people millions a year in salaries, bonuses and stock options, shouldn't they be able to pay their owners more than 1.76%?  They may say they're holding back cash and returning value to shareholders in other ways, such as stock repurchase plans.  However, the only good reason to be repurchasing shares of a company's stock is if the shares are undervalued.  This is not the case with a lot of companies involved in share repurchases.  So one has to wonder why they are repurchasing shares.  Is it to boost executive bonuses?  That would be my guess.

This is why I always vote against executive compensation packages.  As a shareholder, I believe executives should be rewarded for performance and I'm not talking about share valuations that are artificially inflated due to share repurchase programs which were not necessary.  Otherwise, I believe they should be rewarding their shareholders by paying a bigger dividend.  If they aren't doing so, then I see no good reason to increase their pay at the expense of the shareholders.  I invest to make more money for myself, not for greedy corporate executives.