Cry Me a River

Let us stop to collectively mourn a new figure from The New York Times: Chief executives in the United States’ largest publicly traded companies found that their compensation dropped 15 percent in 2009, hitting bourgeois rock bottom at a measly $9.53 million yearly average. —JCL

The drop in compensation was attributed to falling stock and option awards. —JCL

Reuters:

The average compensation for chief executives at the largest publicly traded U.S. companies fell 15 percent last year to $9.53 million, a decline attributable to the falling value of stock and option awards, the New York Times said on Sunday.

Median compensation fell 13 percent to $7.72 million, the second straight yearly decline, driving pay down to a level not seen since 2004.

It comes amid growing concern among the public, Congress, governance advocates and White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg about the fairness of out-sized pay, especially at companies that received government aid, as the economy emerges unevenly from the worst recession since the 1930s.

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