U.S. CEO Pay Jumps Minimum Of 27 Percent Last Year, Survey Finds

While the incomes of so many Americans remain the same size or get smaller, corporate chiefs can't say they're suffering in quite the same way.

American CEOs saw pay increases of between 27 and 40 percent last year, according to a GovernanceMetrics International survey cited by the Guardian. In addition, the median value of CEOs profits on stock options jumped to $1.3 million from $950,400.

This, even after Congress passed financial reform regulations that included provisions aimed at making CEO pay more transparent by allowing shareholders to weigh in.

The survey's findings may resonate with Occupy movement activists, who have been railing against income inequality since the protests first started. Indeed, CEO pay by itself exceeded the amount that his or her corporation paid in income taxes in at least 25 cases last year. And in the year before America's highest-highest-paid corporate chief netted more than $145 million, U.S. median income fell to below $27,000, meaning half of all earners made less than that.

But John Hammergren, CEO of healthcare provider McKesson, isn't the only boss taking home the big bucks. JPMorgan Chase Chief Jamie Dimon got a $19 million raise in 2010 and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein netted an extra $3.6 million in bonuses last year.

The news is a good sign for people in the top one percent of earners, who saw their incomes drop by roughly a third in the official years of the recession, according to a recent report by The New York Times. Still, even after that fall, the net worth of one percenters remained 200 times higher than that of the median national income, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

Some CEOs even got huge pay packages for not doing their jobs. Eugene Isenberg took home $100 million for dropping his title as CEO of Nabors Industries in October. While Dougless Foshee, the CEO of natural gas pipeline operator El Paso, became eligible for an exit package worth $95 million after the company was acquired by rival Kinder Morgan.

Still, some don't seem to mind the huge CEO paydays. The vast majority of corporate shareholders say that CEOs are being compensated correctly, according to an October study from research firm Equilar.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post said an increase to $1.3 million from $950.000 is a 70 percent increase. It is a 36.8 percent increase.

What other jobs do the richest Americans hold? Find the answer below:

Comments

[bcbgrad]

10:25 AM on 01/31/2012

Until all Americans ban together like over in Greece or England and take to the streets to protest this will continue to happen. People wake up we have a lot of power and it's called consumer power. If we don't buy their products the CEOs can't get bonuses.

[no dash american]

09:58 AM on 01/04/2012

This is the part that bothers me, supposedly they are getting increases due to their education, their business prowess, but it definitely cannot be for job performance, when will everyone realize that the people that perform the work, that build the equipment, that keep the machinery running is what makes the companies continue to improve. How many unionized employees could be hired for the price of one CEO? If a tradesman applies 5 years of their life to an apprenticeship does that not equal a bachelors degree? This greed is appalling.

[wisdom-is-good]

03:16 AM on 01/04/2012

If a person takes charge of a company and raises profits and makes that company successful he should be compensated accordingly But if, as we have witnessed That person runs the company into the ground than he should crash and burn with that company.......... only in America can CEO,s steal all the money and get a taxpayer bailout to do it all over again

[Nora M]

03:51 PM on 01/04/2012

There is no correlation between performance and compensation, as we have seen repeatedly. Pay for top executives depends not on what they do or what they know. It depends on who they have appointed to their board of directors - mainly, each other. This is a game in which everyone else looses. They are greedy, ruthless and immoral.

[mark whitehouse]

05:14 PM on 12/23/2011

Imagine having a mind that magneticly aligns to profits - personal profits, my employees, my company, my profits. Like being colour blind, only perceiving a fraction of what Life offers in the way of human experience,...? seems the closest thing to a robot/zombie mentality I can imagine,...?
"death on two legs?"
"The night mare life in death was she who thick's mans blood with cold?"

[jc323]

12:09 AM on 12/22/2011

It is really the .1% that is the problem or even the .01% the superclass. They have had their wealth and power for so long that they are delusional, they have taken greed to a whole new level. (a few major stockholders) Nothing new under the sun this always happens to the select few they think that they are better than the commoner.

[dzadzey]

06:51 PM on 12/21/2011

And the 1 percenters are wondering why people are honked off.

[talan123]

04:06 PM on 01/03/2012

Oh they realize it, they just don't care because they think it doesn't apply to them.

[Nora M]

03:52 PM on 01/04/2012

In fact, none of the rules apply to them. Mores the pity, they are right about that. Americans idolize this group of sociopaths.

[belgarde1]

04:46 PM on 12/21/2011

And they wonder why so many companies and banks are failing. It's a no brainer. QUIT paying yourselves high wages. The middle and lower class people have gained what 18% if that in the last 30 years on their wages the rich have gained over 300%. The Republicans DO NOT want to tax their friends (the rich). It might actually help our country and pull us out of the whole Bush put us in and the whole his buddy's in senate and the house continue to run not allowing the President to pass any laws that would tax the rich. What the rich earn on their money just in interest each month could pay for numerous peoples households. Their mortgage,utilities, insurance, food, etc. Just ONE rich persons interest on their money could achieve that. But god forgive if they actually do something about it. How much money does a person need?

[LVNVprog]

03:24 AM on 12/19/2011

Pay them a Billion Dollars for all I care, However Tax Then at Federal Rates of 75% on all incomes above - let's pick a number, 5 Million per Year. Plus a 1% annual Wealth Tax on total wealth above 20 Million Dollars. I guess Republicans would have problems on taxing assets over 20 Million Dollars Also or increased taxes on incomes above 5 Million Dollars. As we Keep upping the Incomes and Republicans refuse to Tax those individuals we are certainly getting closer to the actual names of the individuals they are protecting.

[DeManted101]

09:35 AM on 12/19/2011

It could happen, just as soon as the "conservatives" stop thinking we all win when these insanely rich get even richer

[moviepage101]

12:41 AM on 12/19/2011

I didn't know, this is what they meant by "economic reform."

[moviepage101]

12:39 AM on 12/19/2011

Everybody sing along:
you wake up monday morning...and all your money's gone... ahh enron ron ron ron, ah enron ron...

[moviepage101]

12:30 AM on 12/19/2011

Thanks President Obama. That govt bailout of these companies really worked out for the ordinary citizen. I would now like to utilize the rest of this space to apologize to Sarah Palin. I apologize for mocking you behind your back and referring as a "block head." Particularly, when you made the "hopey changey" comment. The hopey changey thing has not worked out well for regular, decent hardworking Americans. It has paid off tremendously for the wealthy though...

[MarkAnthonyAdams]

12:06 PM on 12/24/2011

You've got to be joking, or you must be smoking some whacky weed homegrown from Sarah "Pum Pum" Palin's Alaska. Who knows, maybe you'll also be able to Russia from your bedroom window? - That's how extremely ridiculous and uninformed your commentary was. Thanks to President Obama, this thing called the United States of America is still breathing; although on life support for now. However, it's sadly obvious that the ignorance in embracing even more ignorance over in America still persists. Thank goodness, the ignorance is mostly with the Cloned Minority. As for the knowledgeable Diverse Majority, we all will be fully supporting President Obama’s re-election in 2012 – as the repugnant TEABAGGERY Republicans sole self-serving agenda is to take the working poor and middle class “Back to the Future”

[moviepage101]

09:30 PM on 12/24/2011

Mr. Adams, My comment was written in jest. I thought it permeated sarcasm. Perhaps if one was more learned (that's learn-id), there would have been a higher level of discernment. I understand though, you don't know...what you don't know. That's why, I'll exercise the utmost restraint (and save you some pride) by refraining from dismantling your prose...sentence-by-sentence. Choose your insults wisely, for you never know, who is on the other end of that keyboard, responding to your juvenile conjecture. In the future, and I may not be so benevolent.

[Corie Lemmon]

05:11 PM on 12/18/2011

I really do hope someone does takes matter into their own hands and shoots these people. They are so greedy that they don't care that the people that sell their products are getting paid barely enough to feed their families and pay their bills. This inequality needs to be fixed. LOL to those who feel the CEO's deserve it....Really they deserve to make millions because they work so hard? What about those that works their butts off everyday and get paid next to nothing compared to what the CEO's make...CEO's get their pay and bonuses regardless of how good or BAD they perform.

[Pastori Balele]

04:34 AM on 12/18/2011

That's why we have OWS. I am asking OWS continue till November 2012 to get rid of all Republicans from Senate and Congress. GOPers think corporations are people rule this country. Well, we won't allow this. GOP and TEA Party willl die a natural death come November 2012.

[nicenissey]

03:42 AM on 12/18/2011

Listen up, SOCIALISTS!

These hard-working CEOs get a raise because they deserve it. Look at Blankfein of Goldman Sach. Isn't he deserving of a bonus? Or Apotheker, former CEO of HP. Then there's Carol Bartz of Yahoo. Do you know how difficult it is for them? They work so hard. So stop whining. You don't have any idea what it's like to do their kind of work.

Those 99ers, why is it that you think you deserve a decent salary? How do you deserve more than minimum wage? Do you do more than what's asked of you?

These CEOs do. For example,

-They fire people if revenues don't meet targets
-They fly on private jets when they have to attend meetings
-Some of them helped the world economy collapse. How many people do you know can do that? If that's not by sheer genius, then what do you call it?

Viva MERITOCRACY!

[WWARD4911]

07:13 AM on 12/18/2011

Do you believe in The Pledge of Allegiance? Funny thing it was written by a True Socialist ....... not what you are assuming Socialism to be.

[nicenissey]

07:43 AM on 12/18/2011

And that assumption of socialism is...?

[mark whitehouse]

05:40 PM on 12/22/2011

viva meritocracy!!!

plunder worldmarkets at rockbottomprices after helping the worldeconomy tocollapse - sheer genius - no common guys

U$A!!

[dailyfiber]

01:15 AM on 12/18/2011

When a CEO decides that the best option for his/her company to be most profitable would be by eliminating jobs within the company isn't he essentially saying:

"If I were more competent and successful at my job I wouldn't need to be making this decision? After all, if I am the Chief Executive Officer, and I can't successfully execute the vision that I have for the company, either my vision is incorrect or I'm just doing a really bad job at 'executing' it. Either way it's ultimately my responsibility to accept accountability for leading the company in this direction that clearly is not working. And since I firmly believe that pay scales should be based upon performance I definitely do not deserve a 40% raise this year; or at the very least I should be forfeiting my bonus so that managers and employees within the company can see that--just like them--I must be held accountable for my decisions."

[Robert Abramski]

10:30 PM on 12/22/2011

If these executives were smart they would raising employee wages and investing back into their own companies instead of lining their own pockets. Without a strong middle class, there is no one to buy products and services that pay their salaries. It is a circular system, not an upward money funnel. The good CEOs should pledge some of their salaries into keeping American wages up. http://ceopaycut.org