The Nation's 10 Most Overpaid CEOs

By far the nation’s highest paid CEO, Tim Cook earned more last year than the next four best-compensated CEOs combined. He raked in 378 million times the salary of his predecessor, Steve Jobs, whose 2010 pay was just $1. Apple could pay Jobs so little because it had given him stock options early in his tenure that exploded in value with the launch of its iPhones and tablets. The company clearly wants to replicate that approach with Cook, whose pay was mostly a one-time grant of $377 million in Apple shares. But even when averaged over their 10-year vesting period, those shares at current prices give Cook an annual take of $38 million, which is more than all but nine CEOs earned last year. “If Apple continues its growth at even more modest levels than it has in the past,” corporate governance consultant Paul Hodgson told Bloomberg, “then the award is going to far exceed anything we’ve ever seen.”

David Simon, Simon Property Group
Compensation: $137.2 million
Corporate profits: +67%
Stock gain/loss: +33%

Simon and Cook are the only two CEOs of publicly traded companies who occupy the exclusive nine-figure niche, but other than getting big lump payments in stock, they have little in common. Simon’s real estate investment trust earned just 4 percent of what Apple brought in last year, and it had smaller percentage gains in profits and stock price. Shareholders showed their displeasure at Simon Property Group’s annual meeting in May, voting nearly 3 to 1 to reject Simon’s pay deal. While the company responded that it would “take their views into consideration,” it did not pledge to renegotiate Simon’s pay.

David M. Zaslav, Discovery Communications
Compensation: $52.4 million
Corporate profits: +80%
Stock gain/loss: -2%

Shares in the media conglomerate that owns Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel slid last year over fears of ad revenue declines and concerns that the internet and Netflix are decimating cable profits. Even so, Discovery gave Zaslav a 23 percent raise, making him second only to Leslie Moonves of CBS (a much larger company) as the nation’s highest-paid media executive. In May, Discovery Communications’ stock slipped again when the company booked losses on OWN, its joint venture with Oprah Winfrey.

Michael S. Jeffries, Abercrombie & Fitch
Compensation: $46.6 million
Corporate profits: -16%
Stock gain/loss: -7%

Jeffries’ pay more than doubled last year even as Abercrombie shares took a tumble, dragged down by the preppy retailer’s poor performance in Japan, Canada, and Europe. He raked in more than four times as much as the CEO of Dick’s Sporting Goods, a similarly sized retailer that logged a respectable 16 percent return on investment. Jeffries’ company has resorted to antics such accusing Jersey Shore star Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino of damaging the brand by donning Abercrombie shirts on television. A day after the company offered Sorrentino “substantial payment” not to wear its clothes, its stock plunged 9 percent.

Red more here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/executive-pay-america-top-10-overpaid-ceo