layoff leaders

Corporate executives stick to a script when pulling the layoff lever: Cite the tough economic landscape, promise that employees will remain the firm's most valued asset, insist that there was no other option to protect the company's future. Here's why you shouldn't buy what corporate America's selling when it comes to life-ruining layoffs.

CEOs who cut the most jobs during the recession earned an average of 42% more than their S&P 500 peers, according to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies. Top execs at the 50 firms that laid off the most workers since the economic crisis began averaged nearly $12 million in 2009.