There has been a lot of press of late about the incredible compensation the top CEOs in the U.S. make. From cash compensation to stock and options, the top 15 highest paid CEOs raked it in during 2014. Every CEO in the top 10 made more than $50 million. Any one of them could be thumbing through catalogs for private jets and super yachts right now. When available, we also plugged in the percentage gain or loss in comparison to the previous year's salary. Nicholas Woodman of GoPro came in the big winner there with an overall gain of 4,079%. Conversely, Oracle's Larry Ellison saw his total compensation decline by 14%. But don't cry for him, he still makes more in one year than the vast majority of us will make in a lifetime. Cable TV and Technology companies dominate this list, so new college graduates who want to make millions should be looking for jobs at companies like these.
Interestingly, only one of the top 15 is a woman, and that is, unsurprisingly, Yahoo!'s Marisa Mayer. In fact, of the top 200 highest paid CEOs, only 12 are women. After Mayer, the next woman is Carol Mevrowitz of TJX. She comes in at #54. Other women making the top 200 include Hewlett-Packard's Meg Whitman, PepsiCo's Indra K. Nooyi, IBM's Virgina M. Rometty, and Lockheed Martin's Marilyn A. Hewson. Not surprisingly, the list is comprised of predominately white males.
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Let's take a look at the 15 Highest Paid CEOs and how much they made in 2014:
1. David Zaslav
CEO Discovery Communications
Salary: $156.1 million
Cash compensation: $11 million
Stock and options: $145 million
Change in total pay (1 year): +368%
2. Michael Fries
CEO, Liberty Global
Salary: $111.9 million
Cash compensation: $16 million
Stock and options: $95.9 million
Change in total pay (1 year): +140%
CEO, Gamco Investors
Salary: $88.5 million
Cash compensation: $88.5 million
Change in total pay (1 year): + 4%
CEO, Microsoft
Salary: $84.3 million
Cash compensation: $4.5 million
Stock and options: $79.8 million
5. Nick Woodman
CEO, GoPro
Salary: $77.4 million
Cash compensation: $2.7 million
Stock and options: $74.7 million
Change in total pay (1 year): +4,079%
6. Gregory Maffei
CEO, Liberty Media & Liberty Interactive
Salary: $73.8 million
Cash compensation: $8.5 million
Stock and options: $65.3 million
Change in total pay (1 year): +1,077%
CEO, Oracle
Salary: $67.3 million
Cash compensation: $2.3 million
Stock and options: $65 million
Change in total pay (1 year): -14%
8. Steve Mollenkopf
CEO, Qualcomm
Salary: $60.7 million
Cash compensation: $2.7 million
Stock and options: $58 million
9. David Hamamoto
CEO, NorthStar Realty Finance
Salary: $60.3 million
Cash compensation: $11.6 million
Stock and options: $48.7million
Change in total pay (1 year): +227%
10. Les Moonves
CEO, CBS
Salary, $54.4 million
Cash compensation: $29.9 million
Stock and options: $24.5 million
Change in total pay (1 year): -6%
11. Philippe P. Dauman
CEO, Viacom
Salary: $44.3 million
Cash compensation: $24.4 million
Stock and options: $19.9 million
Change in total pay (1 year): +19%
12. Bob Iger
CEO, Walt Disney
Salary: $43.7 million
Cash compensation: $26.4 million
Stock and options: $17.3 million
Change in total pay (1 year): +27%
13. Jay Brown
CEO, MBIA
Salary: $43.6 million
Cash compensation: $8 million
Stock and options: $35.6 million
Change in total pay (1 year): +730%
14. Marissa Mayer
CEO Yahoo!
Salary: $42.1 million
Cash compensation: $2.1 million
Stock and options: $39.9 million
Change in total pay (1 year): +69%
15. Leonard Schleifer
CEO, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Salary: $42 million
Cash compensation: $3.3 million
Stock and options: $38.6 million
Change in total pay (1 year): + 15%
