Are we really patting people on the back for cutting their own pay to allow employees to be paid more? That's how economics work: if you want to pay X then you have to find that money somewhere.
I did not downvote you, but paying people more is not a zero-sum game. The pay rate of an employee is not necessarily contingent on the salary of a CEO. More money can be attained through the creation of value in an economy - this value will add wealth - this added wealth could allow for both the employee and the CEO to be paid more.