Contrary to what one president might think, the stock market’s performance last year likely did not have much of an impact on your life. It did, however, help line the pockets of many CEOs. The median pay for bosses at 133 of the biggest U.S. corporations was $11.6 million in 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal. That’s up from median pay of $11.2 million the year prior.
Half the CEOs included in WSJ‘s analysis scored raises of 9.9% or more, while a quarter of them received raises of at least 25%. Stock awards accounted for most of the additional pay, and the highest-paid CEOs hail from industrial and tech companies. Topping the list is Broadcom CEO Hock Tan, whose compensation crossed $100 million, and none other than Elon Musk, whose $2.6 billion pay package is being voted on by Tesla shareholders today. (Musk’s pay would be tied to Tesla’s performance, based on market value and revenue or profit.)
Compensation for CEOs may fall a bit next year, between the tax cuts and the new CEO pay ratio disclosure, which requires that public companies reveal the difference between pay for median workers and the CEO’s pay. Here’s to finding out how underpaid you really are!
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