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Pay for Performance
Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
9:35am
Fri Jul 22

Top CEOs Made Less In 2015, But They Still Earned 276 Times More Than Average Worker

CEOs at America's largest firms received an average of $15.5 million in compensation last year, meaning they earned 276 times more than the typical worker in 2015, new research shows.

The $15.5 million in average CEO compensation was down about 5 percent from 2014, when the figure was $16.3 million, and up 46.5 percent since the economic recovery began in 2009, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

"Most (83 percent) of the decline in CEO pay from 2014 to 2015 can be explained by the drop in the value of realized stock options in that period," EPI's report reads. "Therefore the decline in compensation does not reflect any structural change in how CEO compensation is set or changes in corporate governance. CEO compensation will likely resume its upward trajectory when the stock market resumes upward movement."

Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
1:05pm
Fri Sep 5, 2014

Report: Obamacare Curbed Taxpayer Subsidies For Health Insurer Executive Pay

The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) sharply reduced taxpayer subsidies last year for executive pay at the nation's 10 largest publicly held health insurance companies, according to a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a Washington-D.C.-based think tank.

Last year, an ACA provision took effect that put a $500,000 cap on the tax deductibility of health insurer executive compensation. Previously, the companies had a $1 million limit on the deductibility of executive pay from federal corporate income taxes. Now, health insurance companies are allowed to deduct only up to $500,000 in combined performance-based and salary pay per employee each year.

As a result of the deductibility limits under the health reform legislation known as Obamacare, the country's top 10 health insurers saw their collective corporate taxes increase by an estimated $72 million in 2013, according to the report, "Executive Excess 2014: The Obamacare Prescription for Bloated CEO Pay."

Quick Hit
by Ellyn Fortino
5:21pm
Tue Jun 17, 2014

Report: Walmart Received $104 Million Taxpayer Subsidy For Executive Pay

A recent report reveals that Walmart raked in taxpayer subsidies totaling $104 million for its executive pay over the past six years at the same time many of the retailer'slowest-paid workers have had to rely on public assistance to meet their basic needs.

Taxpayers subsidized the pay for top Walmart officials due to what critics say is a loophole that allows unlimited corporate tax write-offs on performance-based compensation for executives.