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June 27, 2008

Study: CEOs Accumulated More Wealth

From 2006 to 2007, the median value of total stock holdings and accumulated retirement benefits for Fortune 500 CEOs increased by 6.1 percent, rising from $53.4 million to $56.7 million. These amounts include pension benefits, deferred compensation, outstanding option awards, unvested stock awards, and shares owned outright, according to Equilar.

The review of Compensation Discussion and Analysis (CD&A) reports of Fortune 500 companies by Equilar found an increase in the prevalence of companies that considered accumulated wealth when determining executive pay levels from 8.4 percent in 2006 to 14.5 percent in 2007.

For key board leadership positions, Equilar found that median total board-level compensation for non-executive chairs at Fortune 500 companies increased from $258,500 in 2006 to $264,000 in 2007.

Other findings:

For lead directors, median total compensation increased from $174,843 to $189,413 over the same period.
The prevalence of Fortune 500 companies with independent board leadership positions grew from 78.4 percent to 80.9 percent.
In 2007, 71.7 percent of non-executive chairs and 45.8 percent of lead directors at Fortune 500 companies received a pay premium over regular board members not holding a leadership role.

Companies that consider accumulated wealth in the study included Halliburton, ManPower, Big Lots, Rockwell Automation, Dillards, and Aetna.