The Wall Street Journal surveyed the pre-tax earnings of the CEOs of the 456 biggest American companies and discovered that, as corporate profits have once again increased, they’ve made 3 percent more money overall. That doesn’t sound like much, but there’s an upward trend: The CEOs of the 65 companies whose fiscal year ended more recently and covered more of the recovery saw their pay increase by almost 15 percent.
The best-paid exec in the country is Liberty Media’s Gregory Maffei, who made $87.1 million. Ralph Lauren came in at No. 9, making $27 million. The story also comes with an interactive graphic decoding the jargon that companies use on financial statements to justify paying so much.
The Year’s Top Ten Highest Paid CEOs
How To Read A Proxy Statement [WSJ]
Paychecks for CEOs climb [WSJ]
