U.S. executives don’t have to work on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley to get rich.
Among bosses at public companies, those in consumer-staples businesses were awarded average pay packages of $47.8 million in the most recent fiscal year, more than any other sector, according to the Bloomberg Pay Index, which lists 200 senior executives with the highest compensation. A year ago, the index ranked health-care bosses as the best paid.
Communications-industry managers on the index received an average of $34.7 million, more than the $31 million for their peers in finance. The figures include salaries, bonuses, perks, changes in the value of pensions and new equity grants valued at each company’s fiscal year-end. As a result, the figures can differ from those reported in regulatory filings.
Each sector had outliers that helped skew the averages. Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Marc Lore, who falls into the consumer-staples category, got $236.9 million as part of the retailer’s purchase of his Jet.com. In finance, Evercore Inc.’s John Weinberg got $123.2 million when he joined the bank in November 2016. Google CEO Sundar Pichai led the communications industry with $106.5 million (its parent, Alphabet Inc., isn’t considered a tech company by the Bloomberg index because most of its revenue comes from advertising).
Among CEOs of S&P 500 companies, those running communications firms got the biggest average pay packages, led by CBS Corp.’s Les Moonves with $83.6 million. Technology chiefs ranked second, topped by Apple Inc.’s Tim Cook with $98.8 million.
The Bloomberg index allocates one-time grants over the life of the awards, when companies state that they’re intended as pay over multiple years. Charter Communications Inc. CEO Tom Rutledge, for example, got a 2016 pay package that the company valued at $98.5, including two grants of options that are set to vest over five years. The index allocates those securities over that span.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.
