M$20$

A

B

$f_x$

Alignment

$\sqrt[\phantom{2}]{y}$

Many people ask, "Are executives worth their very high pay?" This is a difficult question to answer because the benefits an effective executive brings to the company are hard to measure. One thing we can do$,$ however, is to see if changes in executive pay are correlated with changes in company performance. If pay increases when company performance increases, and vice versa, then this would be an indication that pay practices are aligned with the interests of shareholders. To study this question, we have data $($from The New York Times, May $24,2019)$ for $30$ of the highest paid chief executive officers $($CEOs$)$ in the United States in $2018($these are not the $30$ highest paid