- The typical CEO at the biggest U.S. companies got an 8.5 percent raise last year, raking in $11.5 million in salary, stock and other compensation, according to a study by executive data firm Equilar for The Associated Press. That’s the biggest raise in three years.
The bump reflects how well stocks have done under their watch. Boards of directors increasingly require that CEOs push their stock price higher to collect their maximum possible payout, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index returned 12 percent last year.
Over the past five years, median CEO pay in the survey has jumped by 19.6 percent, not accounting for inflation. That’s nearly double the 10.9 percent rise in the typical weekly paycheck for full-time employees across the country.
But CEO pay did fall for one group of companies last year: those where investors complained the loudest about executive pay. Compensation dropped for nine of the 10 companies scoring the lowest on “Say on Pay” votes, where shareholders give thumbs up or down on top executives’ earnings.
Other measures that would highlight the income gap between CEOs and typical workers are on the way, but governance watchdogs worry that Congress will kill or dilute their strength.
“It’s all out of whack right now,” said Heather Slavkin Corzo, director of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, which says CEOs for major U.S. companies make 347 times more than the average worker.
The AP’s CEO compensation study includes pay data for 346 executives at S&P 500 companies who have served two full consecutive fiscal years at their respective companies that filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and May 1.
The highest-paid executive in the survey was Thomas Rutledge of Charter Communications, which absorbed Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks last year to become the nation’s second-largest cable operator.
His compensation totaled $98 million, about $88 million of that from stock and option awards included as part of a new five-year employment agreement. For Rutledge to collect the full amount, Charter’s share price will need to rise 155 percent over six years.
CEOs typically got more than half their total compensation from stock and option grants last year.
No. 2 was Leslie Moonves at CBS, who made $68.6 million. That included $63.9 million in bonus and stock awards the company’s board said he received for presiding over a 36.6 percent return for CBS shares in 2016 and for keeping CBS the top-rated network in the 2015-16 season, among other performance measures.
The highest-paid executive in North Texas — and the state of Texas — was AT&T’s Randall Stephenson, who collected compensation worth $28.4 million, according to a Star-Telegram analysis.
Next came Rex Tillerson, the retired Exxon Mobil chief who is now secretary of state, who was paid $27.4 million in his final year atop the oil giant.
Another former CEO, Gregg Tanner of Dallas-based Dean Foods, was next at $22.4 million, while D.R. Horton founder and Chairman Donald Horton earned $17.8 million.
Eighteen North Texas executives collected more than $10 million, and more than 40 were paid in excess of $5 million. (ontinueReading
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