CEO Compensation

Two contrary developments reveal decidedly mixed developments in CEO compensation. In order to justify its pay to its top executives, Citibank is forever fiddling with the rivals it compares itself with. Conversely, in a clear sign that it is unhappy with the direction of the company the board of J.C. Penney cut the pay of its CEO Ron Johnson by almost 97 percent.

CEO.com assembled a list of 10 “big-time CEOs” who earn a base salary of just $1 a year. At a time when most CEOs are notorious for enormous pay packages (on average $10.5 million, according to Forbes), these 10 have opted for something less lofty. They do have one thing in common: all are entrepreneurial with all but one—Eddie Lampert—having founded a business. Yes, Virginia, founder-entrepreneurs do think differently than manager-CEOs.

CEO pay is an emotional issue with some, but it as a business performance issue it may be beside the point. Simply said, reducing chief executive pay, while a nice symbolic gesture, is not going to materially improve profitability. Symbolism won’t pay shareholder dividends, won’t drive revenue and won’t better the bottom line. One expert suggests that more attention and energy should go into investigating supplier “salary” rather than CEO remuneration.

Cash compensation for S&P 500 corporate board directors increased by only 1 percent while total comp increased by 8 percent. Companies are moving away from compensation based upon meeting attendance. Despite long-standing criticism companies continue to offer benefits to directors.

In 2012, labor unions and associated organizers under the “Occupy” umbrella have been especially active in challenging executives’ pay, according to a recent report by James R. Copland, director of the Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy. The Institute’s report is featured in ProxyMonitor.org, a publicly available resource containing searchable and sortable information on public company shareholder proposals.

We have to do better on CEO compensation or it will be the undoing of business.

Money isn't the great motivator people often suppose. In fact, excessive monetary rewards can lead to bad behaviors.

Chief Executive Group recently conducted a groundbreaking study of the compensation practices of private companies with revenues of $5 million to $5 billion. In our last issue, we provided some of the highlights about CEO compensation practices. This charticle focuses on some of the key findings related to other senior executives.

Here is a list of the top 100 CEOs and their pay packages according to public record. The top three CEOs all made more than $70 million in one year alone.

Most CEOs earn nowhere near the compensation of their public company counterparts, according to the results of an exclusive Chief Executive Group study of 789 CEOs of privately held companies, which represent the overwhelming majority of firms in the economy.