If the Occupy Wall Street protesters needed any more ammunition, statistics from the New York State Comptroller this week show just how wide the gap between those on the street and those inside the skyscrapers really is.

In 1981, the average salary of someone in the securities industry in New York was merely twice as high as that of a non-finance related worker, but over the past 30 years the distance between the two has widened to resemble a gulf rather than a gap, the data shows.