Knowledge Center Reports

Equilar 100: Highest-Paid CEOs at the Largest Companies by Revenue

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April 25, 2016

Each year, the Equilar 100 examines CEO pay at the largest companies by revenue to study how executive pay aligns with company performance. This list is a snapshot of companies to file annual proxy statements before April 1 to provide an early look at CEO pay trends for 2015. With hundreds of companies filing in the last two weeks of April and first week of May, Equilar’s annual study with the New York Times on the 200 Highest-Paid CEOs will be forthcoming in several weeks after all the data is processed.

The introductory page of this feature shows the Top 10 highest-paid CEOs at Equilar 100 companies. Below the highest-paid CEO list, there is a link to the full list of CEOs where our interactive chart allows you to sort by any of these measurements to see how company revenue and shareholder return aligns with CEO pay at these leading companies.

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Highest-paid CEOs at Equilar 100 Companies

	EXECUTIVE NAME	TOTAL COMP. (MM)	REVENUE (B)	TSR
1.	Mark V. Hurd ORACLE CORP	$53.2	$38.2	5%
2.	Safra A. Catz ORACLE CORP	$53.2	$38.2	5%
3.	Robert A. Iger WALT DISNEY CO	$43.5	$52.5	17%
4.	David M. Cote HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL INC	$33.1	$38.6	6%
5.	Jeffrey R. Immelt GENERAL ELECTRIC CO	$26.4	$117.4	27%
6.	Bhavesh V. Patel LYONDELLBASELL INDUSTRIES N.V.	$24.5	$32.7	13%
7.	Randall L. Stephenson AT&T INC.	$22.4	$146.8	8%
8.	K. Rupert Murdoch TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY FOX, INC.	$22.2	$29.0	-7%
9.	Indra K. Nooyi PEPSICO INC	$22.2	$63.1	9%
10.	James P. Gorman MORGAN STANLEY	$22.0	$37.9	-17%

The full list of CEOs is on the following page in an interactive table.

Click Here

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Key Trends and Takeaways

• Median and Average Pay: Median pay for Equilar 100 CEOs was $14.5 million in fiscal year 2015, up 3% from the previous year. The CEOs on last year’s Equilar 100 list earned 5% more than 2013. Average pay for Equilar 100 CEOs in 2015 was $15.5 million.

• Female CEOs: Eight CEOs on the list are female, and they far outpace the median pay for the Equilar 100 as a whole. Median compensation for these eight women was $20.0 million in 2015, while average pay was $22.7 million. Safra Catz of Oracle—tied with her colleague Mark Hurd as the highest paid individual CEO in the Equilar 100—was the highest paid female with $53.2 million.

• Chairman/CEO Pay: Two-thirds of Equilar 100 CEOs are also Chairman of the Board. Median pay was $14.6 million for Chairman/CEOs at Equilar 100 companies vs. $13.6 million for CEOs who were not Chairman.

• Highest Revenues: Apple is the largest company by revenue on the list, totaling $233.7 billion in 2015, followed by Berkshire Hathaway with $210.8 billion. Notably, Tim Cook of Apple was paid below the median ($10.3 million) and Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway was by far the lowest-paid CEO in the Equilar 100, earning $470,244 in total compensation last year.

• Lowest Revenues: No Equilar 100 company besides Apple and Berkshire Hathaway exceeded $150 billion in revenue last year. NextEra Energy was the 100th largest company on the list, pulling in $17.5 billion in fiscal year 2015. NextEra’s CEO made just above the median for the Equilar 100 at $14.7 million.

• Industry Trends: Each of the oil and gas companies in the Equilar 100 had double-digit revenue declines in fiscal year 2015, yet only one saw CEO pay fall from the previous year (ConocoPhillips).