Every spring, top U.S. media outlets and business research organizations release compensation surveys that detail executive pay levels over the preceding year. These surveys seldom sample the same 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 in 2010 on CEO pay for 2009. Our most current compilation [1] of annual executive pay reports covers the 2012 corporate fiscal year.
National Pay Reports |
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| Source | Methodology | Top Pay | Median/Avg | Increase | Worth Noting |
| Corporate Library November 16, 2010 |
Survey by the Corporate Library, an independent corporate governance research group, covers over 1,000 CEOs of publicly traded companies. The survey’s total realized compensation includes salaries, bonuses, perks, non-stock incentive awards, perks, and earnings from previously awarded options. | Henry Culp, Danaher Corp., $141.36 million | Median total realized compensation: $1.8 million | Median: -.3% | The Corporate Library attributes the slight dip in total realized pay to stagnant stock prices, Base salaries for CEOs increased in 2009. |
| Wall Street Journal [2] November 15, 2010 |
Survey, by the Hay Group, covers CEOs of the 456 publicly traded companies with revenues over $4 billion that filed pay data between October 1, 2009 and September 30, 2010. Total direct compensation covers salaries, bonuses, and the value of new stock awards, but not perks, changes in pension value and deferred pay earnings, and earnings from previously awarded options. | Gregory Maffei, Liberty Media Corp., $87.1 million | Median: $7.21 million | Median: +3% | This survey updates a preliminary survey of 200 companies the Journal published in April 2010. That survey of 200 early filing companies found a $6.95 million median, down 0.9 percent from the previous year. But later filing companies reversed that median loss into a gain. |
| Forbes [3] April 28, 2010 |
Survey tracks the pay of CEOs at nation’s 500 largest companies. Pay includes salary, bonuses, vested restricted stock grants, long-term incentive payouts, perks, stock gains, and the “value realized by exercising stock options,” as identified in annual filings made by April 9. | H. Lawrence Culp Jr., Danaher, $141.36 million | Average: $8 million | Average: -30% | The 500 surveyed execs, even after a major plunge from the take-home of the previous year, walked off with $4 billion in 2009. The 25 highest paid all took home at least $24.77 million, with the top four each over $100 million. |
| AFL-CIO Executive Pay Watch April 13, 2010 |
Survey, by salary.com, covers 292 companies in the S&P 500 Index. Broader Executive Pay Watch database covers nearly 3,000 corporations. Pay does not include gains from stock options collected in previous years. | Average: $9.25 million | The average U.S. worker would have to work until 2989 A.D. to match the $31.4 million 2009 compensation of Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray Irani. | ||
| New York Times [4] April 4, 2010 |
The survey, by Equilar, reflects pay for 200 CEOs at firms with revenues over $5.78 billion that filed proxies by March 26. Pay includes salary, bonuses, the grant date value of stock and stock option awards, and perks. Not included: payouts from stock awards from previous years. | Lawrence Ellison, Oracle, $85 million | Median: $7.7 million Average: $9.5 million |
Median: -13% Average: -15% |
Dragging down the overall CEO pay totals: compensation for 12 CEOs at enterprises that received TARP bailout dollaws. Median pay for this dozen dropped 34 percent. |
Regional Pay Reports |
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| Source | Methodology | Top Pay | Median/Avg | Increase | Worth Noting |
| Gazette (Maryland) April 16, 2010 |
Survey, conducted by Equilar, covered chief executives at 199 major publicly traded companies with substantial workforces in Maryland. Firms all had at least $5.8 billion in revenue and filed annual proxy statements by March 26. | Robert Stephens, Lockheed Martin, $23 million | Median: $7.7 million | Median: -13 percent | The year’s big Gainer: Host Hotels & Resorts CEO W. Edward Walter, who saw his pay surge 59 percent to $4.6 million. |
| Colorado Springs Gazette May 1, 2010 |
Survey covered chief executives at four major publicly traded companies in Colorado Springs. | Emile Geisenheimer, Spectranetics, $2.01 million | Average: $1.04 million | Median: 19 percent | The lowest CEO earner: William Staunton, CEO of semiconductor maker Ramtron. The firm had a rough year, and Staunton took home $397,200, with no extra bonus or options. Says the CEO: “To reward executives for not making money is unfathomable to us.” |
| Indianapolis Business Journal [5] May 22, 2010 |
Survey tracks pay of 238 Indiana executives at public vtraded companies. | John Lechleiter, Eli Lilly, $16.4 million | Of the over 200 executives tracked, 103 saw pay increases in the Great recession year of 2009 and 131 declines, with 89 execs in total making $1 million or more. | ||
| Idaho Statesman [6] May 30, 2010 |
Survey examined pPay for CEOs at Idaho’s top 12 publicly traded companies. | Phillips Baker Jr., Hecla Mining Co., $3.2 million | Idaho’s top five execs each took home over $2 million in 2009. | ||
| Los Angeles Times [7] May 30, 2010 |
Survey, by research firm Equilar Inc., looked at chief executive pay for the top 100 California companies tnat had reported pay totals by May 8. Total does not includes deferred compensation or profits from stock options cashed out during the year. | Larry Ellison, Oracle, $84.5 million | Average: $8.4 million | Average: -11% | Overall, 26 California CEOs took home at least $10 million in 2009. |
| Tulsa World [8] June 12, 2010 |
Survey examined the pay of company executives based in eastern Oklahoma. | Steven Malcolm, Williams Cos. Inc., $8 million | |||
| Dallas Morning News [9] June 13, 2010 |
Survey looked at chief executive pay at the 100 largest companies in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. | Randall Stephenson, AT&T, $29.2 million | Median: $2.23 million | Median: -7.32%
Average: .55% |
Eight top executives pulled in at least $10 million in 2009, 24 at least $5 million. |
| Pittsburgh Tribune-Review [10] June 13, 2010 |
Survey, by Equilar, includes “the value of stock options exercised, less their price when issued, and stock that vests — that is, becomes available to an executive during the year.” | James Rohr, PNC Financial Services Group, $25 million | In 2009, 85 western Pennsylvania executives took home at least $1 million. | ||
| San Jose Mercury News [11] June 13, 2010 |
Survey, by Equilar, covered the 2009 compensation for “155 chief executives heading Silicon Valley’s largest companies based on revenue,” for companies that had filed pay records by May 21. | Larry Ellison, Oracle, $84.5 million | Median: $2.02 million | Median: -4.5% | The 155 execs together took home $579 million. In 2009, Larry Ellison made the the year’s Silicon Valley per capita income of $62,000 every six and a half hours. |
| Minneapolis Star Tribune [12] June 27, 2010 |
Survey looked at 100 Minnesota top execs, using “a ‘cash value’ recognition method that counts all dollars received in the reporting year, including any gains on the exercise of stock options.” Pay totals do not include new option awards. | Stephen Hemsley, UnitedHealth Group, $101.96 million | Median: $926,818 (Does not include Hemsley compensation) |
Median: -1.2% | Hemsley’s reward reflects the $98.6 million he cleared exercising stock options received in previous years. Midwest worker wages rose last year about 2 percent, the smallest hike in 37 years. |
| Rochester Democrat and Chronicle [13] June 27, 2010 |
Survey covers 50 top executives of companies with a major presence in the Rochester area. | Overall, 33 CEOs made more in salary and bonuses last year than the year before, 17 less. New York workers earned 1.4 percent less in the first half of 2009 than they earned in the first half of 2008. | |||
Economic Sector Pay Reports |
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| Source | Methodology | Top Pay | Median/Avg | Increase | Worth Noting |
| AR/Alpha [14] April 1, 2010 |
Survey covers the 25 top hedge fund managers. Pay includes “the managers’ shares of their firm’s performance and management fees, as well as gains on their own capital invested in their funds.” | David Tepper, Appaloosa Management, $4 billion | Average, top 25: $1.01 billion . |
Average, top 25: 118% |
In 2009, 10 hedge fund managers made at least $825 million. Combined earnings for the top 25 for the year, reports the trade journal Alpha, broke the previous $22.3 billion record set in 2007. |