The biggest jump in pay came for education grads, who made 5.4% more than a year earlier.

FORBES: Starting Salaries Jump 3.4% For New Grads

There are far too many serious questions to answer for me to jump on the pay-college-athletes bandwagon.

FORBES: The Problems With Paying College Athletes

Both are true: pay, stealthy or overt, has been bid up between companies, making it hard for individual firms to jump off the pay escalator even if they wanted to (which few did).

ECONOMIST: At the heart of capitalism's troubles lies executive pay