It's good to be the CEO of a company. These men (seriously, where are the female CEOs?) bring home some serious cheddar for helming the U.S.'s largest companies. Not only do that make sky high salaries that afford them lives of incredible luxury, but their salaries are increasing at a pretty good clip, year-to year.
Total annual compensation of the more than 300 top CEOs in the U.S. increased by 5.5% to an average of $11.4 million from 2012 to 2013. The top 10% of earners made a staggering 23% of total compensation of the 300 CEOS on the list. The bottom 30% accounted for 13% of the total. The three highest-paid CEOs— Oracle's Larry Ellison, CBS's Les Moonves and Liberty Global's Michael Fries — made a total of $188 million, more than the combined pay of the 50 CEOs at the bottom of the same list.
But, surely the top paid CEOs bring home many many millions of dollars each year because their companies are top performers… right? Yeah, not so much. None of the CEOs in the top 10 biggest companies were even in the top 10% for performance. For instance, Larry Ellison of Oracle is the highest paid CEO in America, but performance wise, Oracle is only listed at number 152.
It should be noted that total compensation on the list below includes salary, stock, annual incentives, and performance awards. Most of the top 10 highest paid CEOs made the bulk of their money from stock options.
Larry Ellison Net Worth and Salary / Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Here are the Top 20 Highest Paid CEOs:
1. Larry Ellison, Oracle
2013 Compensation: $76.9M
Change Since 2012: -18.7%
2. Les Moonves, CBS
2013 Compensation: $65.4M
Change Since 2012: 11.1%
3. Michael Fries, Liberty Global
2013 Compensation: $45.4M
Change Since 2012: 248.2%
4. Richard Adkerson, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold
2013 Compensation: $38.9M
Change Since 2012: 125.1%
5. Philippe Dauman, Viacom
2013 Compensation: $36.8M
Change Since 2012: 11.0%
6. Robert Iger, Disney
2013 Compensation: $33.4M
Change Since 2012: -8.1%
7. Jeffrey Bewkes, Time Warner
2013 Compensation: $32.4M
Change Since 2012: 26.9%
8. Mark Bertolini, Aetna
2013 Compensation: $31.2M
Change Since 2012: 174.9%
9. Fabrizio Freda, Estee Lauder
2013 Compensation: $30.9M
Change Since 2012: 140.1%
10. Jeffrey R. Immelt, General Electric
2013 Compensation: $28.2M
Change Since 2012: 262.1%
11. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs
2013 Compensation: $28.0M
Change Since 2012: 16.7%
12. Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil
2013 Compensation: $27.6M
Change Since 2012: 3.2%
13. Rupert Murdoch, 21st Century Fox
2013 Compensation: $25.8M
Change Since 2012: 16.9%
14. David Farr, Emerson Electric
2013 Compensation: $24.9M
Change Since 2012: 284.5%
15. Kenneth Chenault, American Express
2013 Compensation: $24.4M
Change Since 2012: 10.9%
16. Laurence Fink, BlackRock
2013 Compensation: $24.0M
Change Since 2012: 11.6%
17. Charles Scharf, Visa
2013 Compensation: $23.4M
Change Since 2012: N/A
18. Brian Roberts, Comcast
2013 Compensation: $22.6M
Change Since 2012: 5.7%
19. Alan Mullaly, Ford Motor
2013 Compensation: $22.5M
Change Since 2012: 11.2%
20. Trevor Fetter, Tenet Healthcare
2013 Compensation: $22.4M
Change Since 2012: 146.4%
