Following closely was the Restaurants/Food/Beverage/Tobacco category, in which CEO salary generated a median of $325,000
Rounding out the top 5 were the categories of Financial/Insurance at $307,500, Energy/Utility/Oil/Gas at $300,000 and Entertainment/Gaming/Sports/Travel at $260,000 in median annual CEO salary.
Companies with the lowest base median CEO salary were in the Agriculture/Forestry/Fishing and Business Services/Legal categories, which tied at $200,000. There is a $130,000 gap between the CEO salaries of the highest and lowest categories.
Of course, CEO Salaries are one component of their total compensation packages. CEO bonuses, stock options and grants, equity appreciation, benefits and perks can often add substantial value to a CEO’s total compensation package. There are also large differences among CEO salary and total compensation packages based on the size of the companies they run, the type of ownership (e.g., family owned, private equity, venture capital, ESOP, etc), the geographic market the company is located in and other variables. Complete salary, bonus, equity, benefits and perquisite information along each of these dimensions for CEOs and other senior executive positions (e.g., Chairman, President, COO, CFO and senior marketing, sales, HR, R&D and IT) is available in the CEO and Senior Executive Compensation Report for Private Companies 2014-2015.