Rediff.com« Back to articlePrint this article

America's highest paid CEOs

Last updated on: May 04, 2005 14:43 IST

The chief executives of America's 500 biggest companies (as measured by a composite ranking of sales, profits, assets and market value) got an aggregate 54% pay raise last year.

Total compensation: $5.1 billion. That easily outpaced 2003's 8% pay raise. Main reason: stock gains.

Terry S. Semel, chief executive of Yahoo, was this year's top earner. Semel's $230.6 million in total pay came almost entirely from exercised stock options.

AMERICA's 10 HIGHEST PAID CEOs

Rank

Name

Company

Compensation

1

Terry S Semel

Yahoo

$230.554 million

2

Barry Diller

IAC/InterActiveCorp

$156.168 million

3

William W. McGuire

UnitedHealth Group

$124.774 million

4

Howard Solomon

Forest Labs

$92.116 million

5

George David

United Technologies

$88.712 million

6

Lew Frankfort

Coach

$86.481 million

7

Edwin M. Crawford

Caremark Rx

$77.864 million

8

Ray R. Irani

Occidental Petroleum

$64.136 million

9

Angelo R. Mozilo

Countrywide Financial

$56.956 million

10

Richard D. Fairbank

Capital One Financial

$56.660 million

For this group as a whole, aggregate stock gains accounted for 53% of total compensation versus 39% a year ago.

Average gain: $5.5 million. When calculating a chief executive's pay, Forbes measures the following for the company's latest fiscal year: salary and bonuses; other compensation, such as vested restricted stock grants; and stock gains, the value realized by exercised stock options.

Check the enitre list by:
Rank | Name | Company | Age | Total Compensation

Slide Show: America's highest paid CEOs

Forbes Team