REDWOOD CITY, Calif., June 9, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Equilar, the leader in executive compensation benchmarking and governance solutions, announced the publication of the Equilar / AP Pay Study in The Associated Press.
Since 2011, Equilar has collaborated with The Associated Press to deliver high-quality information on executive compensation. This year, the Equilar/AP Pay Study provides an analysis of 340 S &P 500 CEOs who served in the role for at least two years. The companies must have filed a proxy between January 1 and April 30, 2015, to be included in this study.
"We are pleased to join forces with The Associated Press to publish the annual Equilar/AP Pay Study," said Aaron Boyd, Director of Governance Research at Equilar. "There are several interesting findings in this year's list. One such fact is six out of the top 10 highest-paid CEOS were media executives."
Equilar's data and research is frequently cited by top media outlets, and Equilar's award-winning product suite is the gold standard for analyzing executive and board compensation.
"The combination of Equilar's data and AP's global reach means that the public will be better informed about executive pay," said AP Markets Editor David Brinkerhoff.
Key Pay Findings
- For the first time since 2011, a female executive (Marissa Mayer of Yahoo!) made the list as one of the top 10 highest-paid CEOs with a total compensation of $42.1 million.
- The four highest paid executives—David Zaslav, Leslie Moonves, Philippe Dauman, and Robert Iger—have all appeared in the top 10 since the study was first published.
- For CEOs in the current study, median pay increased 0.8% between 2013 and 2014 from $10,521,653 to $10,611,031.
- On average, pay packages in 2014 were composed of 61% equity, 36% cash and 3% other compensation.*
View the complete pay study results on the Equilar / AP Pay Study website.
*Cash is defined as the sum of base salary and discretionary and performance bonuses. Other compensation is defined as the sum of non-qualified deferred compensation earnings, and perks and other compensation.
About Equilar (www.equilar.com)
Over the past 15 years, Equilar has developed industry-leading data and tools for over 1,000 clients, including public and private companies, compensation consultants, institutional investors, attorneys and corporate governance leaders. As the trusted data provider to 70% of the Fortune 500, Equilar helps companies accurately benchmark and track executive and board compensation, Say on Pay results and compensation practices. In addition, Equilar offers the industry's leading business networking solution for identifying pathways to executives and board members at companies of interest. Equilar's research is cited regularly by Bloomberg, Forbes, CNN Money, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal and other leading media outlets.