Specific options include giving shareholders a binding veto on board pay, changing the make-up of pay committees and making compensation, including pay ratios, more transparent.

ECONOMIST: Executive pay

In some cases it started off as a form of wage restraint in the dark days of the 1990s: companies cut basic wages and employees hoped that performance-related pay might make up the difference, which it did not always do.

ECONOMIST: Still work to be done

But with the Majlis spoiling for an economic fight with Mr Ahmadinejad, it looks as though this time he may have to make Iran's over-enthusiastic motorists pay up.

ECONOMIST: Oil-rich Iran may have to ration petrol

They typically make up the majority of the take-home pay of people who work in the financial markets, and they can reach into the seven and eight figures for top players.

NPR: Wall Street Workers Reap Gains in Bonuses

In America, new tax breaks on health savings accounts make it attractive for individuals to build up nest-eggs to pay for their increased share of the cost.

ECONOMIST: There must be a better way

Offshore-account holders must pay a lump sum to make up for unpaid taxes, plus an annual withholding tax.

ECONOMIST: Swiss banking secrecy

Its immense shale-gas potential might make it even less willing to pay up, inclining it to depend less on pipeline gas and to take the risk that it can smooth out ebbs and flows through spot markets.

ECONOMIST: Shale gas should make the world a cleaner, safer place

Only when demand starts to grow and some of those users start to pay for the product can the entrepreneur make a case that the start-up will earn investors an attractive return.

FORBES: 7.8% Unemployment: In Hungry Start-up Era, Jobs Not Coming Back

With that promise in hand, the bank would make the purchase and immediately sell it onto the buyer at a mark-up, agreeing the buyer could pay, say, three months after goods are delivered--in effect, trade finance at a fixed rate with legal protection against default on the one side and loan sharking on the other.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The middle-aged worker has to scramble to make up for a freeze, boosting his savings by 16% of pay.

FORBES: The Big Chill

It is also helpful to set up a pay-per-performance compensation plan or start them out as a consultant and make them prove themselves.

FORBES: From Tragedy To Triumph -- Becoming A Successful Entrepreneur