DANIEL COSTELLO Happy days are back in the corner office,at least. After shrinking during the 2008-09 recession,paychecks for top American executives are growing again. Rarely has the view from the corner office seemed so at odds with the view from the street corner. At a time when millions of Americans are trying to hang on to homes and millions more are trying to hang on to jobs,the chief executives of major corporations like 3M,General Electric and Cisco Systems are making as much today as they were before the recession hit. Indeed,some are making even more. The disparity is especially stark as companies are swimming in cash. In the fourth quarter,profits at American businesses were up an astounding 29.2 percent,the fastest growth in more than 60 years. Collectively,American corporations logged profits at an annual rate of $1.678 trillion. So far,this recovery has not trickled down. After two relatively lean years,CEOs in finance,technology,energy and beyond are pulling down multimillion-dollar paychecks. What many of these executives arent doing,however,is hiring. For the average CEO,however,the good times have returned. The median pay for top executives at 200 major companies was $9.6 million last year. That was a 12 percent increase over 2009,according to a study conducted for The New York Times by Equilar,a compensation consulting firm based in Redwood City. Many if not most of the corporations run by these executives are doing better than they were in the downturn. Many businesses were hit so hard by the recession that even small improvements in sales and profits look good by comparison. But CEO pay is also on the rise again at companies like Capital One and Goldman Sachs,which survived the economic storm with the help of taxpayer-financed bailouts. Against such a backdrop,its noteworthy that recent moves to empower shareholders seem to have done little to tamp down corporate enthusiasm for paying top dollar to top executives. On this years list,the highest-paid CEO was Philippe P Dauman of Viacom,who made $84.5 million in just nine months. Also at the top was Ray R Irani,the CEO of Occidental Petroleum,who took home $76.1 million last year,up 142 percent from the previous one. Lawrence J Ellison of Oracle,the software giant,followed close behind,with a $70.1 million payout,though that is down 17 percent from 2009. Many consumer products companies also offered rich pay packages,including one for John F Lundgren,chief executive of Stanley Black & Decker,whose pay rose 253 percent,to $32.57 million,after a huge stock award. His counterpart at Emerson Electric,David N Farr,saw his pay rise 233 percent,to $22.9 million,also because he was granted millions in stock.
