The chief executives of America's 500 biggest companies (as measured by a composite ranking of sales, profits, assets and market value) got an aggregate 54% pay raise last year.
Total compensation: $5.1 billion. That easily outpaced 2003's 8% pay raise. Main reason: stock gains.
Terry S. Semel, chief executive of Yahoo, was this year's top earner. Semel's $230.6 million in total pay came almost entirely from exercised stock options.
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AMERICA's 10 HIGHEST PAID CEOs | |||
|
Rank |
Name |
Company |
Compensation |
|
1 |
Yahoo |
$230.554 million | |
|
2 |
IAC/InterActiveCorp |
$156.168 million | |
|
3 |
UnitedHealth Group |
$124.774 million | |
|
4 |
|
Forest Labs |
$92.116 million |
|
5 |
United Technologies |
$88.712 million | |
|
6 |
Coach |
$86.481 million | |
|
7 |
Caremark Rx |
$77.864 million | |
|
8 |
Occidental Petroleum |
$64.136 million | |
|
9 |
Countrywide Financial |
$56.956 million | |
|
10 |
Capital One Financial |
$56.660 million |
For this group as a whole, aggregate stock gains accounted for 53% of total compensation versus 39% a year ago.
Average gain: $5.5 million. When calculating a chief executive's pay, Forbes measures the following for the company's latest fiscal year: salary and bonuses; other compensation, such as vested restricted stock grants; and stock gains, the value realized by exercised stock options.
Check the enitre list by:
Rank | Name | Company | Age | Total Compensation