Equilar and The New York Times Release Top 200 Highest-Paid CEO Rankings

Equilar's Annual Study of Top Paid CEOs Reveals Highest Levels in 9 Years


REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 18, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Equilar, the leader in executive compensation benchmarking and governance solutions, announced the publication of the Equilar 200 Highest-Paid CEO Rankings in The New York Times.

This list contains the 200 highest-paid chief executive officers among public U.S. companies valued at $1 billion or more in market capitalization. This is the second of two annual CEO studies Equilar compiles with The Times based on proxy filings from thousands of U.S. firms. The first study appeared in April 2014 and focused on the pay of chief executives at the 100 largest companies.

"We are honored to be partnering with The Times to publish the the Equilar 200 Highest-Paid CEO Rankings. This annual list provides a comprehensive ranking of the top paid CEOs in 2014," said Aaron Boyd, Director of Governance Research at Equilar. "This is the highest we've seen CEO pay since we started this list."

Over the past nine years, Equilar has been the preferred data provider to The Times for executive compensation information. As part of this collaboration, Equilar provides data on compensation for top executives at U.S. public companies.

Key Findings of Equilar's Analysis for 2014 CEO Salaries

  1. Discovery Communications' CEO David Zaslav was the highest paid at $156.1million, making him the highest paid CEO since Tim Cook of Apple received $376 million in 2011.
  2. Michael Fries of Liberty Global and Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors sit second and third on the list with $111.9 million and $88.5 million, respectively.
  3. Among the top CEOs, the highest paid woman was Marissa Mayer of Yahoo at $42.1 million sitting at 14th on the list.
  4. Median pay for the 200 CEOs was $17.6 million, a growth of 21% over last year's study.
  5. Out of the top 10 CEOs, four of the executives are at technology companies.

View the full list of top paid CEOs on Equilar's New York Times page.

About Equilar (www.equilar.com)

Over the past 15 years, Equilar has developed industry-leading data and tools for over 1,000 clients, including public and private companies, compensation consultants, institutional investors, attorneys and corporate governance leaders. As the trusted data provider to 70% of the Fortune 500, Equilar helps companies accurately benchmark and track executive and board compensation, Say on Pay results and compensation practices. In addition, Equilar offers the industry's leading business networking solution for identifying pathways to executives and board members at companies of interest. Equilar's research is cited regularly by Bloomberg, Forbes, CNN Money, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal and other leading media outlets.


            

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