New
England CEO pay $oars
By John Strahinich
Saturday, May 14, 2005
The
CEOs of New England's 100 biggest public companies scored a staggering
45 percent average pay raise last year - more than twice the return they
gave to their shareholders, a new survey shows.
The region's top chief executives were paid an average of more than
$4.9 million in total compensation in 2004, up from $3.4 million the
year before, according to pay experts DolmatConnell and Partners Inc. in
Newton.
By contrast, the survey showed shareholders of these companies saw
an average 20 percent return.
``Performance was certainly strong for these companies,'' said Jack
Dolmat-Connell, who did the survey. ``But when CEO compensation goes up
45 percent, it says we have a way to go before we get to true
pay-for-performance.
``Move the decimal point over by one and you get what everybody
else is getting for a raise,'' Dolmat-Connell added.
Topping the list of CEOs who got the most but returned the least
was Teradyne Inc.'s Michael A. Bradley. His pay shot up 419 percent,
from $1.6 million to $8.4 million, even as his shareholders saw a 33
percent loss.
Next came Brooks Automation Inc.'s Edward C. Grady. He got a
whopping 680 percent raise, from $428,000 to $3.3 million, even though
the Chelmford company's shareholders saw a 32 percent loss.
On average, base salaries for the region's top 100 CEOs rose 8.5
percent, to $750,000 from $691,000.
But at the same time, their bonuses shot up more than 31 percent,
to $887,000 from $675,000.
The survey also uncovered another trend: an 8 percent drop in the
number of companies that give CEOs stock options, but a 13 percent rise
in firms providing restricted stock.
Dolmat-Connell said CEOs benefit from stock options only if they
can boost share prices, whereas executives can cash out time-vested
restricted stock even if stock prices drop.
``The world is moving rapidly to restricted stock,'' said
Dolmat-Connell. ``The bad news is, (restricted shares) are not good from
a shareholder perspective because they're not a pay-for-performance
vehicle.'' |