Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality

The Too Much Executive Pay Scoreboard
Every spring, top media outlets and business research organizations in the United States release compensation surveys that detail executive pay levels over the preceding year. These surveys seldom sample the same exact groups of corporations — or measure pay the exact same way — and, consequently, almost always generate somewhat different results. This Too Much table compares the various reports released so far in 2008 on CEO pay for 2007. *Also available from Too Much: comparisons of the major CEO pay reports released in 2007, 2006, and 2005*.
National Pay Reports
Source	Methodology	Top Pay	Median/Avg	Increase	Worth Noting
Bloomberg News March 26, 2008	Analysis by Bloomberg's Graef Crystal, based on data collected from Equilar, covers the 107 CEOs at companies with market caps of at least $2 billion whose fiscal years ended December 31, 2007.	Kenneth Chenault, American Express, $55.8 million	Average: $12.1 million	Average: 12%	This year's 12 percent pay hike more than tripled the 3.6 percent increase in the national weekly wage for U.S. workers in 2007.
New York Times April 6, 2008	Survey, conducted by Equilar, covers 200 chief executives at large public companies that filed proxies for last year by March 28, 2008. Pay includes base salary, bonuses, perks, and awards of stock or stock options made during the year. Not included: gains from stock options awarded in preceding years.	John Thain, Merrill Lynch, $83.8 million	Median: $9.4 million Average: $11.7 million	Median: 6% Average: 5%	CEOs at the 10 top financial services firms surveyed collected a combined $320 million, in a year that the companies they led “reported mortgage-related losses that totaled $55 billion.”
USA Today April 9, 2008	Survey, based on data from Salary.com, covers CEO pay at 50 S&P 500 companies that had filed proxies through March 2008. Pay includes salary, cash bonuses, and grants of stock and stock options, as well as perks, but not gains from options awarded in prior years.	John Thain, Merrill Lynch, $83.1 million	Median: $15.7 million		Oracle CEO Larry Ellison collected $61.2 million in annual pay for 2007 and pocketed another $181.8 million cashing out options he took home in previous years.
Equilar April 10, 2008	Survey, conducted by this California-based executive pay research company, covers CEO compensation at 233 S&P 500 firms where the chief executive has been “in place for at least two years.” Pay does not include gains from options awarded in previous years.		Median: $8.8 million	Median: 1.3%	CEOs continue to boost their take-homes with pension benefits and deferred pay. In 2007, for S&P 500 firms reporting two years of data under the new SEC disclosure rules, the median accumulated CEO pension benefit jumped to $6.1 million, a 29.5% increase. At these firms, the median deferred pay plan balance soared 54.3% to $4.5 million.
Wall Street Journal April 14, 2008	Survey, conducted by the Hay Group, covers CEOS at 200 major U.S. corporations with over $5 billion in revenue. Total direct pay covers “salaries, bonuses, other annual incentives as well as the value of restricted stock, stock options, and other long-term incentive awards at the time they were granted.”	John Thain, Merrill Lynch, $78.5 million	Median: $8,848,000	Median: 3.5%	Of the 200 CEOs in the survey, 125 during 2007 cashed in stock options they had collected in previous years. These execs scored a $4,869,648 median gain.
Forbes May 1, 2008	Survey covers CEOs at the 500 biggest U.S. companies as measured by “ sales, profits, assets. and market value.” Included in pay: all "compensation when it turns into cash or marketable stock." Forbes tallies stock options when executives exercise them.	Lawrence Ellison, Oracle, $192.9 million	Average: $12.8 million	Average: down 15%	Overall, the top 500 U.S. CEOs collected $6.4 billion in compensation last year. In 2006, their average pay increased 38 percent.
Associated Press June 13, 2008	Survey covers pay for CEOs of companies in the S&P 500. Pay includes “salary, perks, bonuses, above-market interest on pay set aside for later, and company estimates for the value of stock options and stock awards on the day they were granted last year."	John Thain, Merrill Lynch, $83 million	Median: $8.3 million	Median: 3.5%	he 10 top-paid CEOs on the AP collected over half a billion, yet half of them led “companies whose profits shrank dramatically.."

Regional Pay Reports
Source	Methodology	Top Pay	Median/Avg	Increase	Worth Noting

San Diego Union-Tribune June 8, 2008	Survey looked at gains from stock optiions to tally San Diego area's best-paid CEOs for 2007.	Gregory Lucier, Invitrogen, $29.3 million	Average (salary and bonus only): $639,939	Average (salary and bonus only): 3.7%	In 2007, 103 San Diego-area execs took home at least $1 million, up three from 2006.
Seattle Times June 14, 2008	Survey, conducted by Equilar, covers the pay packages of 140 CEOs at publicly traded companies based in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Pay includes base salary, bonuses, cash-incentive plan payouts, stock and option awards, and perks. Does not include gains realized from option exercises.	James Voelker, InfoSpace, $38.1 million	Median, all CEOs in place both 2006 and 2007: $1.3 nillion. Median, 20 best-paid CEOs in place both years: $8 million.	Median, all CEOs: 8.3% Median, top 20: 31.1%	Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos collected $1.3 million in pay last year. So far this year he has collected about $304 million selling off shares from his personal stash of Amazon stock. He still holds shares worth about $7.7 billion.

Economic Sector Pay Reports
Source	Methodology	Top Pay	Median/Avg	Increase	Worth Noting
Alpha April 15, 2008	Survey covers the 50 top hedge fund managers. Pay includes “managers’ share of their firm’s performance and management fees, as well as gains on their own capital.” Pay does not include any earnings a hedge fund manager may have made by either selling a fund or shares of stock in it.	John Paulson, Paulson & Co., $3.7 billion	Average, top 25: $892 million Average, top 50: $581 million.	Average, top 25: up 67.7%	In 2006. 25 hedge fund managers made at least $230 million. This year, 43 walked off with at least that many millions. In 2002, hedge fund managers only needed $30 million to make the top 25.

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The Too Much Executive Pay Scoreboard