Pay for corporate chief executives jumped 24 percent last year, with a typical CEO earning about $1.9 million in salary, bonus, stock options and other items, Forbes reported in its latest issue.
The business magazine said much of the increase came as CEOs exercised stock options to take advantage of last year's bull market on Wall Street.
The report was the latest pointing to rising pay for
corporate chief executives, even as job cutting continues at
many companies and wage increases for average workers have
languished.
In its May 19 issue, due on newsstands on Monday, Forbes said the median base salary for 800 CEOs rose 7 percent to $650,000, bonuses jumped 12 percent to $492,000 and other benefits rose 25 percent to $179,000.
Toss in stock options and the median package totaled $1.9 million, the magazine said. The median is the midpoint -- half of CEOs earned less and half more.
Forbes said CEOs are being paid as much as rock stars and super athletes, and in many cases, more.
The highest paid executive last year was Millard Drexler of retailer Gap Inc., whose compensation totaled $104.8 million. No. 2 on Forbes' list was Lawrence Coss of Green Tree Financial at $102.4 million.
Forbes said that 54 CEOs made at least $10 million and three quarters of those on its list earned $1 million or more.
Seven of the corporate chieftains made more than $50 million last year, while only two of the athletes on Forbes list of highest paid athletes made that much: boxer Mike Tyson with an estimated $75 million in gross earnings and Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan, who earned $53 million.
Forbes noted that 316 of the 800 CEOs in its survey exercised stock options last year, with the median gain doubling to $1.04 million. It said that Andrew Grove of Intel Corp. topped the list with $95 million in options exercised.
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Source: Newswire