The Americans for Financial Reform Conference on Executive Pay and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will discuss this afternoon a provision that would disclose the CEO-to-worker pay ratio to investors and the public for the first time. The AFL-CIO is hosting the conference.

For investors, the CEO-to-typical employee pay disparity ratio is an important gauge of the effectiveness of the board. The pay disparity ratio is also important for investors in assessing the efficiency of a company because a steep gap affects employee productivity, morale and turnover. The SEC is drafting a rule on the CEO-to-worker pay disparity ratio, as it is required to under the Dodd-Frank law.

Meanwhile, Payscale.com, a website that compares wages within companies and between companies based on a sampling voluntarily provided by employees, reported that the pay disparity gap was the steepest in 2011 at UnitedHealth Group, among the nation’s 50 largest companies. At UnitedHealth, the CEO Stephen Hemsley was paid 1,737 times the typical worker at the company.

According to PayScale, Hemsley received nearly $102 million in total compensation in 2011, and the median worker at UnitedHealth made $58,700. PayScale reported that the giant retailer Wal-Mart had the second highest pay disparity gap, with CEO Michael  Duke making 717 times the median worker. Duke received $16.3 million in 2011, according to PayScale and the typical worker.

Other companies with a steep CEO-to-pay disparity ratio included United Technologies Corp., where CEO Louis R. Chenevert makes 326 times the median worker at the company, according to PayScale. Chenevert received nearly $24 million and the typical worker makes $73,500, according to the website.