Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality

The Too Much Executive Pay Scoreboard
Every spring, top media outlets and business research organizations in the United States release compensation surveys that detail executive pay levels over the preceding year. These surveys seldom sample the same exact groups of corporations — or measure pay the exact same way — and, consequently, almost always generate somewhat different results. This Too Much table compares the various reports released so far in 2008 on CEO pay for 2007. *Also available from Too Much: comparisons of the major CEO pay reports released in 2007, 2006, and 2005*.
National Pay Reports
Source	Methodology	Top Pay	Median/Avg	Increase	Worth Noting
New York Times April 6, 2008	Survey, conducted by Equilar, covers 200 chief executives at large public companies that filed proxies for last year by March 28, 2008. Pay includes base salary, bonuses, perks, and awards of stock or stock options made during the year. Not included: gains from stock options awarded in preceding years.	John Thain, Merrill Lynch, $83,785,021	Median: $9,442,340 Average: $11,703,090	Median: 6 percent Average: 5 percent	CEOs at the 10 top financial services firms surveyed collected a combined $320 million, in a year that the companies they led “reported mortgage-related losses that totaled $55 billion.”

Regional Pay Reports
Source	Methodology	Top Pay	Median/Avg	Increase	Worth Noting
	None yet released for executive pay in 2007.

Economic Sector Pay Reports
Source	Methodology	Top Pay	Median/Avg	Increase	Worth Noting
	None yet released for executive pay in 2007.

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The Too Much Executive Pay Scoreboard