It has officially happened again. Another Wall Street Executive is walking away with a big pay check, while the common man continues to struggle with recession, unemployment and cut-backs.

Investment Banking Chief of the Bank of America Corp., Thomas Montag has become the highest paid executive for the year 2009, as has been revealed in the company's proxy filing. The man will be bagging a base pay of $586,539 and $30,423 in all other compensation.

Another important consideration - Montag was the only Executive to use a car and driver, which cost a total of $25,000 in 2009.

BofA should now start bracing itself to face some bitter criticism, as has been happening with all institutions which are handing out heavy pays and bonuses to their executives. The bank, however, is ready with its defense. BofA insists that it was crucial for it to retain Montag; in fact, it has been termed as a "priority".

One cannot counter this argument, that's for sure. After all, in these tough times, financial institutions are under increasing pressure to perform well so that they are not phased out, and for that, they certainly need to keep their top level executives.

Investigators, and the common man, however, do have some questions. Why are the executives carrying on a party, while we continue to struggle? They have good reasons, but these don't seem good enough.