Handicap: 28.4
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesViacom CEO Philippe Dauman is the nation’s highest-paid CEO among all industries, not just media and entertainment, according to a report in the New York Times.
As The Hollywood Reporter previously reported, the executive received compensation valued at $84.5 million for the company’s 2010 fiscal year, which was only nine months long due to a change in its financial reporting calendar.
That was more than half his compensation earned for all of 2009, which totaled $34 million. The company said the gains were partly due to one-time stock and options awards as part of a new long-term employment contract that he signed last year.
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Coming in at No. 2 was Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray Irano with $76.1 million in compensation last year.
Lawrence Ellison, CEO of software maker Oracle, landed at No. 3 with $70.1 million.
Three other media company CEOs made the top 10: DirecTV’s Mike White was No. 4 with $32.9 million, Comcast’s Brian Roberts came in at No. 6 with $28.2 million, and Disney’s Robert Iger was No. 7 with $28 million.
Another media/entertainment CEO doesn’t appear on the list until No. 29: News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch, at $16.8 million.
According to the Times, who hired compensation consulting firm Equilar to conduct the study, the top executives at 200 major companies earned a median pay of $9.6 million last year. That marks a 12 percent increase over the previous year.
The Times notes that fourth-quarter profits at U.S. companies were up 29.2 percent — the biggest growth in more than 60 years — but the unemployment rate stands at 8.8 percent and is not expected to drop significantly anytime in the near future.
See the complete list here.
