The Highest-Paid CEOs In 2008: Who Got The Best Deal? (PHOTOS)

The economy left a lot of us behind last year. But the CEOs of the world's biggest corporations can rest easy - they certainly did did alright for themselves in 2008. As Reuters reported today, the Blackstone Group's Stephen Schwarzman brought in a pay package worth $700 million, ranking as the best-paid CEO in the U.S. (The vast majority of his pay came in the form of vesting equity from Blackstone's 2007 IPO.)

The company Schawrzman ran, however, lost $1.6 billion last year. This year's list of the top 10 CEO paychecks also includes seven oil and gas execs, who raked in loads cash even as oil prices slumped.

We've compiled a list of America's best-paid CEOs and detailed just how much their companies made or lost last year. (To give you some idea of what effect each CEO has had on their company, we've include net income figures from each company's last fiscal year)

(NOTE: Not included in this list is Mark G. Papa of EOG Resources, who ranked 8th on this year's list with total compensation worth $90 million)

Check our PHOTOS and VOTE for which CEO earned their keep this year.

Stephen Scharwzman, The Blackstone Group, $702 Million

Blackstone Group's Stephen Schwarzman earned $702 million in total compensation last year. Lately Schwarzman has been spotted celebrating his big payday in St. Tropez, despite Blackstone's $1.6 billion loss last year. To be fair, Schwarzman's bonues ws just $.23 million. The majority of his 2008 compensation came from the vesting of a portion of the equity he was granted in Blackstone's 2007 IPO.

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Comments

[petef59]

10:30 PM on 08/17/2009

Schwarzman''s income last year $702 million while the company he runs lost $1.6 billion. Great equation for a conman.

[ChallengerGrey]

08:33 PM on 08/17/2009

Bet they ALL have health care. (Hope Jeffries get's a refund for his face lift.)

[Furby]

12:22 PM on 08/17/2009

Sorry, I meant "worst lift".

[Furby]

12:21 PM on 08/17/2009

You'd think, with all that money, that Jeffries could have afforded a better plastic surgeon. That's the worst life I've ever seen.

[Tom Newton]

10:42 AM on 08/17/2009

test comment.

[tuberider]

02:59 PM on 08/16/2009

OMG! He's so rich! So hot! He's gotta (!) lose that thing clinging to his arm! So, R.B. So old school. So cliche! What is the world coming to? He should close down Sachs 5th so she can do a Michael Jackson shopping spree, then hermetically seal the place.... GAWD!

[not going2take it]

12:15 PM on 08/16/2009

(emp) NOT necessarily an enviable or desirable status these days. ?
Likely (in a new world economy) a most VULNERABLE place. ! (emp)

They along with other titans, will [one day] need to live protected from greater population
safely isolated in a cave, hidden away (like an OBL) or maybe a deserted island
*UN like in the movies* with their gaziliions of misappropriated wealth.

I can imagine this: one day the uber wealthy will tire of their *m.o.n.e.y. .w.a.r.s*
w.i.t.h. .u.s. and turn their greed toward one another their. They will share the
utter paranoia of knowing the mindset of greed they used to get there,
the all begetting power grab that will one day even topple them.

! Let the RICH EATING RICH begin !

PLEASE make it soooooon!

[billyfitz]

02:53 PM on 08/15/2009

Eat the rich.

[phredralf]

02:08 PM on 08/15/2009

Publicly traded companies should be required to cap CEO salaries relative to profits. Successful companies could pay their CEO's more, to within a certain percentage of company profit for the preceding year. Company failures would be reflected in CEO salaries too. If they want to go public, that's the price they pay to gamble other's money.

Private companies would have no limitation to top salaries.

[GerryS]

01:33 PM on 08/15/2009

jeeeezz, as much $$ as Scharwzman makes, he should be on trophy wife #3 or 4 by now------------------

[MikeTN]

04:39 AM on 08/15/2009

Schwarzman at Blackstone made his millions from buying out companies, firing employees and looting every dollar that wasn't nailed down. What about the 700 Billion TARP (your tax dollars) given to investment banks because THEIR risky investments didn't pay off? If you don't care about the salaries of these people then you are asleep at the wheel.

The system is broken. At one time the USA had top tax rates over 90%, and times were better. Today
the people who control most of the wealth in our nation have little reason to invest in companies that hire people and make actual products. That would mean working for a living

[schatsie]

10:06 AM on 08/15/2009

IKE had the 91% tax rate to pay off the WW2 debt and to build highways,,,, We need the same rates to pay for the BUSH fiascos worth 8 trillion dollars.....and build a healthcare system that works....and repair infrastructure....

[imsosure]

07:09 AM on 08/17/2009

You'll have to tear it away from the guys responsible

http://www.aclu.org/torturedlogic/index2.php

[DesertDogAlpha]

04:29 AM on 08/15/2009

It figures that Schwarzman is tied in with the Kennedys via his chairmanship of the Kennedy Center, a job that must be passed by Teddy Kennedy and others before it can be filled. A true friend of the Democratic royalty.

[nomadicexpat]

02:12 PM on 08/16/2009

get your facts straight, he is a major republican

he may maintain relationships with influential democrats, but he is heart and soul a republican

[bluesky49876]

12:25 AM on 08/15/2009

American workers are being raped by these corrupt and greedy corporations. But they own the media and all institutions of the government....and they laugh all the way to the bank at our elections.

[diak0n0s]

12:00 AM on 08/15/2009

Wait a minute. This can't be correct.

The President has put a stop to all of the Wall Street corruption. . . . right?

[Freenation]

11:24 PM on 08/14/2009

no one is even close to made-off....