CEO pay in US tops pre-crisis levels

The Wall Street Journal on Monday published its review of 350 companies listed in the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, concluding that the median value of salaries, bonuses and long-term incentive awards for their CEOs rose 11 percent over 2009 to $9.3 million.

In 2010, the average annual pay of US workers was $40,500. Thus, according to the Journal’s survey, the typical CEO...took in the equivalent of the combined salaries of 230 American workers...

CEO pay rose 24 percent in 2010...Pay for workers grew by only three percent in 2010, barely keeping pace with inflation. The average wage was less than one-half of one percent of the amount awarded to the typical CEO.

According to the Journal, median CEO pay in oil and gas was $13.7 million; in telecom, $12.5 million; in financials, $10.9 million; in consumer goods, $10.7 million, in health care, $10.6 million; in technology, $9.7 million. The newspaper listed the five highest-paid CEOs as Phillippe Dauman of Viacom ($84.3 million, an increase of 150 percent), Lawrence Ellison of Oracle ($68.6 million, a 17 percent decline), Leslie Moonves of CBS ($53.9 million, a rise of 38 percent), Martin Franklin of Jarden ($45.2 million, up 143 percent) and Michael White of Directv ($32.6 million in his first year as CEO).

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/may2011/ceos-m13.shtml

when the next economic shock hits the country (~3-6 months I estimate from the gas price spike pattern), will CEO pay go up again?

Possibly due to the increased profits realized by the tax benefits and lower labor cost of shipping jobs overseas.

Doesnt sound like there's any incentive to reverse the trend. Just the opposite.

not a new story.

CEO pay. I'm not sure why the average taxpayer should be mad as the more the CEO gets paid the more taxes we collect. It's investors that are getting screwed.

They are free to put their money in any company they wish, if they wanted to they could invest in a company that doesn't outrageously compensate the top executives.

Ain't the free market grand?

Edited for clarity.

And the economy is growing according to some. So surely the money has to go somewhere.