CEO Pay

Don't you love it when a CEO screws up and gets let go.  But, before leaving, they shower them with cash and stocks for their failure?  Why do they treat the bottom rung of the ladder differently?  Seems that when a cashier is fired, they should get a couple of weeks pay and some shares of the company.  This even includes when they knowingly break the rules, like the McDonald's CEO who had a relationship with a coworker.  He broke the rules, but nothing is happening to him, except losing his position.  They made his life comfortable with cash and stocks.