New Study Reveals Top CEO Pay

(AP) —

Six of the 10 highest-paid CEOs last year worked in the media industry, according to a study carried out by executive-compensation-data firm Equilar and The Associated Press.

Here are the 10 highest-paid CEOs for 2014:

  1. David Zaslav, Discovery Communications, $156.1 million, up 368 percent
  2. Leslie Moonves, CBS, $54.4 million, down 17 percent
  3. Philippe Dauman, Viacom, $44.3 million, up 19 percent
  4. Robert Iger, Walt Disney, $43.7 million, up 27 percent
  5. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo, $42.1 million, up 69 percent
  6. Leonard Schleifer, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, $42 million, up 16 percent
  7. Marc Benioff, Salesforce.com, $39.9 million, up 27 percent
  8. Jeffrey Leiden, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, $36.6 million, up 179 percent
  9. Brian Roberts, Comcast, $33 million, up 5 percent
  10. Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner, $32.7 million, unchanged

 

For the annual CEO-pay study, Equilar assessed data from 338 companies that filed proxy statements with regulators between Jan. 1 and April 30, 2015. To calculate a CEO’s pay package, Equilar and the AP looked at salary, stock and option awards, perks and bonuses.

The study only includes chief executives who have been at the helm of their company for at least two years. Because of these criteria, there are some notable omissions from the list.

Among other findings:

– The industry with the biggest pay increase was basic materials, which includes oil, mining and chemical companies. Median pay at these companies rose by 15 percent last year. Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson was the highest paid, making $28.4 million last year.

– Female CEOs again had a median pay package worth more than their male counterparts. Last year, female chief executives earned $15.9 million, compared with the median salary for male CEOs of $10.4 million. The number of female CEOs included in the study rose to 17 from 12 in the previous year. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer was the highest paid, earning $42.1 million, which placed her fifth among CEOs in the survey.

– Richard Hayne, the CEO and co-founder of Urban Outfitters, received the biggest pay bump. His compensation soared 682 percent to $535,636. Most of the increase came from his performance cash bonus, which jumped to $500,000 from $35,000 a year earlier. Hayne returned to lead the company in 2012 after an absence of five years.

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