CEOs’ pay raise biggest since 2013
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THE typical CEO at the biggest US companies got an 8.5 percent raise last year, raking in US$11.5 million in salary, stock and other compensation last year, 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 these CEOs’ 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 last 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 declined 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 US companies make 347 times more than the average worker.
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 US$98 million, about US$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.
Leslie Moonves at CBS, who made US$68.6 million, was No. 2 on the survey. That included US$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.
Walt Disney’s Robert Iger, at US$41 million, was No. 3. That was 6 percent less than the year before, as slowing growth resulted in a bonus cut.
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