Highest-Paid CEOs For 2008: AP's Top 10 List

The 10 highest-paid CEOs for 2008 at Standard & Poor's 500 companies based on calculations by The Associated Press. The analysis includes companies that filed proxy statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission between Jan. 1 and April 20. The total pay figures are rounded and are based on the AP's compensation formula, which adds up salary, perks, bonuses, preferential interest rates on pay set aside for later, and company estimates for the value of stock options and stock awards on the day they were granted last year.

1. Aubrey McClendon, Chesapeake Energy Corp., $112.5 million

2. Sanjay Jha, Motorola Inc., $104.4 million

3. Robert Iger, Walt Disney Co., $51.1 million

4. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., $42.9 million

5. Kenneth Chenault, American Express Co., $42.9 million

6. Vikram Pandit, Citigroup Inc., $38.2 million

7. Steven Farris, Apache Corp., $37.2 million

8. Louis Camilleri, Philip Morris International Inc., $36.9 million

9. Kevin Johnson, Juniper Networks Inc., $36.1 million

10. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co., $35.7 million

Comments

[tippydog11]

And were any of them good CEOs? They all failed why? That is the real question-why?

[Realization]

I note that the top of the list is for Chesapeake Energy. Frankly, this is not a hard job and the high pay comes straight out of customers' (taxpayers') pockets. That is a pure drag on the economy.

Since these, and other, executives are ripping off the available wealth, not helping the economy, it's time for some real anger and action. If you look at other nations, it's obvious that virtually unlimited high salaries and greed are not good for the economy. Time to get control. One immediate move should be to institute very high marginal tax rates with no loopholes. Too bad that the "free market" ideology and greed ahve sapped the country of reasonable ethical standards.

[DavidBlackburn]

Go for it Republicans! Get those earnings up, depress the salaries and jobs of ordinary workers, foreclose on peoples homes, eliminate all taxes for the rich and put the money into your personal accounts!

[petridish]

Here is some nice info for your partisan argument

10 Richest Members of the United States Senate
In Uncategorized on February 11, 2009 at 12:10 pm
1. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)
$336.22 million

2. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va)
$237.84 million

3. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.)
$200.55 million

4. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.)
$103.56 million

5. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)
$93.72 million

6. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.)
$89.51 million

7. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)
$84.17 million

8. Sen. James E. Risch (D-Idaho)
$56.35 million

9. Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.)
$46.18 million

10. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine)
$15.05 million

[Raleigh Dave]

Total accumulated wealth and earned wealth are two different things, though you are right, those numbers are disgusting no matter how you look at it..

You forgot John McCain, he married into over 100 million dollars.

[tqjones44]

It okay to be rich...just don't be paying yourself millions and laying off thousands while the company is tanking, which is what a lot of these CEO's are doing nowadays!

[tqjones44]

I say we burn this MF'er down...just kiddin ya'll...although I do feel this way sometimes!

[petridish]

When will the partisan fools learn that both parties are corrupt. They are bought and paid for by the elite and they vote to support those interests and to continue their existence as the privelaged class in this country.

The senacrooks and congresscritters and their over payed staff are the new gilded class in this country.

They enjoy job security, health benefits, pension plans that are but pipe dreams for the average American.

The best part is these people get these benefits from the taxpayers in this country who struggle to make ends meet. Hell they even get an automatic pay raise every year.

What a system!

[Caliwoman]

There are starving children in this world. This is disgusting.

[VivaZapata]

They referred to bloodletting in France as The Reign Of Terror. Looks more and more like it was bloodletting.

[petridish]

http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/overview.php?type=W&year=2007&filter=C

Why don't you ask some of the people on this list why children are starving in our own country.

[Rog49Thomas]

Because the electorate in our country is more focused on American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.

If folks actually cared, the politicians would follow with righteous indignation akin to a lawyer chasing an ambulance.

So, the problem is not with our stars but with ourselves.

[Rog49Thomas]

At least the Mentalist's firm is in pretty good shape. And he's only in 10th place.

[bigcurefan]

Jealous much? Unless you pay their salary, why else would you care what someone else EARNS? Good for them, they should serve to inspire us all.

[Helanren]

Glad to see you write "EARNS" in capitals, because that's the point.... what on earth makes an employee "earn" tens of millions a year?? If a person owns the business and makes it a success, taking the risk of loosing everything as well as benefiting when things work out, fine, that can be an inspiration. Bill Gates? Saw an opportunity, grabbed it, worked at it and struck it rich, good for him.
But these guys are just doing a job and have nothing to loose. Granted, it's a job that not everybody can do, it's stressful, they probably make twice the hours, etc. etc. but they're still just doing their job. Pay them well for what they do, but these amounts are obscene.

[bombombom]

Sorry to see that you are stuck in the 80's and haven't realized that your party is over (and if your party is the GOP, then in more ways than one).

You should care what they earn. If anything, because if these executives' companies only halved the figures of this top ten list, they would get enough money for funding about 10,000 jobs at the current US median salary rate, benefitting 10,000 families rather than ten. Now, which scenario would you prefer? Which you think is fairer? Which you think encourages less crime and instability? If the companies are not going to do it, then the government might - and should - encourage them to do so. The UK raised their income tax rate to 50% to those making more than 150,000 pounds per year, and last time I checked that was not a socialist republic. I'm afraid teabagging is anachronistic.

It's time for all good people to find their inspiration in giving back to the community rather than in "greed is good".

[Deaninphilly]

Last I checked theses were all public companies, meaning none of the these people actually own the company. $112 million working at an energy company? Are you serious? How much is the average person paying for their utility bill to make certain this greedy good for nothing is kept in a lifestyle that is not justified. These ceo's do not work hard at all, they let the lower paid workers do the work while they hold "meetings" and jet set around the world for lunch.

[Hnorc]

I have no problem with these guys getting paid. The problem I have is with these guys getting paid after receiving government handouts. I realize you being a Rush Dil do-head does not allow much room for independent thought, but you really ought to give it a try.

[thenorthshore]

busybody jealous income envy

waaaaaaaaaa. he makes a dollar more than me

can't the government DO something about that.

[iridium53]

The banksters on the list were successful at destroying the national economy and losing more than half of their shareholder value. Yet, the stockholders - other financial people like CalPERS managers - keep these guys in their jobs.

All the while Obama, Summers, Geithner and Bernanke shovel even more taxpayer money at these individuals.

I find it truly amazing that the public loves and trusts Obama while he gives so much money to these individuals. Absolutely amazing.

[BillN]

I found it equally amazing when Bush, Cheney, et al were shoveling billions of taxpayer dollars at companies like Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater, CACI, and countless other contractors - and all on no-bid contracts.

Bundles of shrink-wrapped currency - to the tune of billions - on pallets loaded onto C130s bound for Kuwait, and eventually Iraq. Duffel bags full of cash doled out to Sunni insurgents so they would stop shooting at our troops... the so-called "Sunni awakening". Hell, I would wake up too if someone threw that kind of cash at ME.

Billions spent on formaldehyde-poisoned FEMA trailers, most of which are empty and decaying on vacant lots in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.

I won't bore you with the Tom Delays and Phil Gramms of the world, who have defrauded the American taxpayer out of millions - probably billions of dollars, not to mention the blatant betrayal of the public trust.

Hopefully you also found THESE actions truly amazing, and were equally disgusted and vocal at the time they occurred.

[petrosbasileus]

The word is 'banker.' I get the idea--a portmanteau of gangster and banker, ergo "bankster" (or maybe I'm reading into it too much and you really just did it because it sounded base enough)--but it's just not necessary.

That out of the way, I'm not sure you understand this situation we're in very well, if at all. This has been in the making since Jimmy Carter signed the Community Reinvestment Act, since Reagan struck out giant portions of the Glass-Steagall Acts of 1933, deregulated the markets, deified the CEO, and used religion to feverishly promote greed, bellicosity, and social irresponsibility, and, of course, since Clinton completely tore down the clause in the second Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 meant to keep the commercial banks from mixing with insurance companies (like AIG) and investment firms (like Goldman Sachs) to form the titanic bank holding companies. But it didn't stop there--then Bush piled on, pushed for an 'Ownership Society,' deregulated the markets altogether, did away with the uptick rule and slowly but surely abolished the 12-to-1 cap on financial leverage, allowing for the bank holding companies Clinton created to bundle together the sub-prime loans Carter and Reagan ushered into existence into securities with overlapping underlying assets (believing that if one failed, it would be offset by the sheer volume of mortgage loans) that could then be put up as collateral for the creation of still more securities or the borrowing of money...

[petrosbasileus]

(cont'd) Then these securities were traded worldwide, no-one saying a thing about it, hence the planetary scope of the recession... But that's not it! If there had been real insurance to back these risky loans, it would've all been fine, but instead the bank holding companies opted for credit default swaps, an unregulated type of insurance that is insurance only in word. So when people started to default in 2006 on the variable-rate mortgages, the insurance was nonexistent, the banks were left with all of this red ink on their balance sheets, and in a knee-jerk reaction stopped lending altogether. And there we arrive at the collateralized debt obligations or "toxic assets" that the government is now having to take care of--an especially hairy affair because it's unclear where one security ends and the other begins--without which the banks cannot lend.

To get things back on an even keel, we need to prop up these institutions, purge them one way or another of these CDOs, and then leave them be--but not without the restoration of the same regulatory policies, or perhaps (I favor this approach), the creation of even more stringent ones to ensure that this kind of a perfect financial storm never happens again. Ever.

[tqjones44]

Conservatives and the GOP are wrong:

The Community Reinvestment Act did not legislate and force banks/mortgage companies to allow millions to borrow with no money down, no proof of income, not even proof of legal status.

It was the GOP’s reduction of the necessary regulatory structure and oversight that was the direct cause!

Check the Income and Credit Guidelines for Fannie and Freddie CRA-LMI backed loans.

[Michael08]

In a nutshell! Excellent submission.

[lobear00]

And they keep sending jobs oversea's, and there are some in the congress who are just as rotten.

[chronic]

This is sickening. Want to know where all the money is going? Well there it is!

[petrosbasileus]

Umm. No? Add it up. It doesn't even figure up to a billion. People are allowed to make money, chronic. I'm just as mad about the situation, but to say we need to burn every dollar and live on goodwill is naive and short-sighted.

[Oonagh]

I do not care what these guys do or have done... they are or never have been worth the money they have been paid.

[chronic]

Got that right!

[FloridaMich]

jamie dimon...jp morgan chase.....my personal story read it all and weep over his 35 million.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=7452561&page=1

[tomasedison]

We need a little justice in this country. No more free rides.
Collect a 6% FICA tax on all salaries over $1M - just the same as the "little people" pay on their wages.

[notAMoron]

I'm confused, I thought FICA was supposed to fund social security and medicare do people with million dollar incomes get a disproportionate amount of social security or do they get the same amount as someone else who maxed out social security? I think thats the point of capping it is so that social security doesn't have to write huge checks to rich people and "secure" the "social" status of the rich.

Why would you want to change that?

[impatient]

You wouldn't. You hardly ever get OUT of social security what you get in. I think the poster was saying make them pay more, they get the same amount back. Is 6% going to change the quality of the life of someone who makes 35 million a year? Doubtful.

[Deaninphilly]

Actually the more money you make the less percentage you pay into social security. It actually has a cap of something like $39,000 a year. You will only pay into the system up to that amount per year. So if your 6% totals more than that you still only pay up to the cap. So taking Dimon at Chase should have really paid 2.1 million to social security for what he made, but in reality doesn't. Since I am self employed I have to pay in 13% with no out on my income. So the self employed person actually ends up paying a higher percentage than Dimon while making considerably less money overall.

[Michael08]

I am still waiting for the "trickle down" theory to go into effect.

[Birdman]

Trickle down never works didn't work in the 20's didn't work in the 80's and didn't work under Bushwhacker

[Rog49Thomas]

If the Magic Free Market Fairy ever starts to trickle down on you, I'd recommend you jump out of the way when the first drop hits you..

It's really hard to get the smell out even with Lysol and bleach.

[MalakAlHaq]

Unfortunately with all their security and secrecy it is impossible to get close enough to those criminals to give them a piece of one's mind.

Like the statement or not, and its source, there are two Americas; and most of us live in the bottom segment.

[Vajara]

When is greed criminal? Why do bullies always rise to this level of power and control of our natural and human resources? Let's all turn in money, return to Go and start over without these predators.

[Doug Flight]

Time to experience the "Reboot" with emphasis on the "Boot."