SiliconBeat

We’ll see if this is a trend that continues, given the klieg lights aimed on executive compensation excesses at the moment, but not only are CEOs at large companies paid more because, well, they are managing large companies, but the rate at which their pay increases rises at a faster rate. That’s the conclusion drawn by The Corporate Library’s CEO pay survey, which examined compensation data in 3,242 U.S. and Canadian companies, making it “one of the most comprehensive CEO pay surveys on the market,” according to The Corporate Library’s press release announcing the availability of the survey results for 75 bucks at its Web site.

The median increase in total actual compensation between 2006 and 2007 was 22 percent for S&P 500 CEOs and 15 percent for Midcap CEOs. On the other hand, Smallcap CEOs received a median pay increase of 5.5 percent.

Median total actual compensation for all CEOs in the survey was reportedly just “over $2,000,000, but levels varied widely. For example, Lawrence Ellison, CEO of Oracle, earned almost $193 million, while some CEOs earned nothing. Median total actual
compensation for S&P 500 CEOs was just over $9.2 million.”

Ah, Larry! You continue to be the poster child for excessive compensation that has little relationship to any kind of market-based rationalization. (That’s a photo of Larry’s yacht up top, btw.)