Study: Average CEO Pay Again On Rise
New research suggests that chief executives made on average nearly $6 million in 2011.
| Posted Thursday, May 3, 2012, at 11:33 AM
Photo by Chris Hondros/Getty Images.
It's still good to be the boss.
New research on CEO pay found that American chief executives saw their pay increase on average by 15 percent in 2011, one year after their average compensation jumped 28 percent following two years of decline.
The Guardian got an early look at interim research from GMI Ratings, a corporate governance consulting agency that provides an annual look at the compensation packages. The full analysis is expected to be out later this year.
Based on the early figures, however, the firm found that the average pay package for an American CEO was roughly $5.8 million last year. For CEOs in the top 500 companies, that figure was $12.1 million. The highest paid CEO? Michael Johnson of direct marking firm Herbalife, who brought in a whopping $89,419,474, according to GMI.
But the news isn't all good for CEOs: last month, Citigroup shareholders rejected a $15 million compensation package for CEO Vikram Pandit, possibly indicating a change in how even wealthy shareholders react to lavish pay packages for company heads.
