This recent Denver Post report caught our eye: “Colorado executive pay down 12.6 percent last year.“

According to the story, Colorado’s top executives, for the most part, took modest pay cuts last year. But Colorado’s top executives still pulled in a lot of money—$4.1 million on average.

But that’s the average. At the top of the top, according to the Post report, was Charlie Ergen. Ergen made $21.8 million as chairman of EchoStar Corp and $958,441 as chairman of its sister company Dish Network, for a grand total of about $22.8 million. Numbers like that can be tough to grasp for some of us nine-to-fivers. The average Coloradan pulls in a salary of $46,770. That means that every three minutes in 2011, Ergen made about the same as the average worker did in a day.

That’s just the start. Here, we break down the numbers. (We’ve done this before with top athletes.)

Charlie Ergen:

2011 income: $22.8 million

Every month: $1.9 million

Every day: $62,466

Every hour: $2,602

Every minute: $43.38

Average Colorado Exectuive:

Annual income: $4.1 million

Every month: $341,666

Every day: $11,233

Every hour: $468.04

Every minute: $7.80

Average Colorado Worker:

2011 income: $46,770

Every month: $3,897.50

Every day: $128.14

Every hour: $5.34

Every minute: $0.09

—Image courtesy of Shutterstock