Del Jones and Barbara Hansen wrote a story for USA TODAY assessing CEO compensation during 2008. While overall CEO salaries may have taken a slight hit, they still seem to be raking it in. According to the story,
A USA TODAY analysis of executive compensation data provided by the Associated Press found that the median salary of a CEO running an S&P 500 company rose 3% last year to surpass $1 million. The median bonus and other incentive cash dropped 27% to $1.3 million, and total compensation was down 7% to $7.6 million.
In many cases, it was worse than it looked, because Securities and Exchange Commission rules require companies to value options and other stock grants based on the dates they were granted. According to AP, 90% of the $1.2 billion in CEO options granted last year are under water, which means the current stock price is too low to yield a profit.
… But don’t go looking for CEOs in bread lines just yet. The brutal bear market that hurt them so badly in 2008 could actually help them later by creating ripe conditions for huge potential paydays. Because of 13-year lows in stocks in early 2009, most CEOs received additional stock grants and stock options this year at fire-sale prices.
Decide for yourself what you think, take a look at the story.
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