Oracle's Lawrence J Ellison has emerged as the highest paid chief executive in the US with a pay packet of $556.58 million in 2008, even as the total compensation of CEOs at 500 biggest American companies declined by 11 per cent last year.
Business publication Forbes has ranked Ellison as the top paid chief executive in America followed by Occidental Petroleum's Ray R Irani at the second spot with a compensation of $222.64 million.
"After a 15 per cent collective pay cut in 2007, chief executives of the 500 biggest companies in the US (as measured by a composite ranking of sales, profits, assets and market value) took another reduction in total compensation, 11 per cent, for 2008," Forbes said.
"In total, these 500 executives earned $5.7 billion in 2008, which averages out to $11.4 million apiece and computes to less than one per cent of total revenues and three per cent of total profits of their companies," it added.
Among the India-origin chief executives, the list features soft drinks maker Pepsico's Indra Nooyi, banking entity Citigroup's Vikram Pandit, financial services firm Hartford Financial Services' Ramani Aiyer and software company Adobe System's Shantanu Narayen, among others.
With a compensation of $9.36 million, Nooyi is ranked at the 147th position while Pandit has cornered the 369th place with a pay packet of $2.94 million.
Aiyer had a pay of $9.29 million and is at the 151st spot. Ranked at the 335th place, Narayen received a compensation of $3.60 million.
The report said that 64-year-old Ellison got just $1 million in salary whereas he realised $544 million by exercising vested stock options last year.
Irani is followed by Hess' John B Hess at the third position with a pay package of $155 million. Ultra petroleum's Michael D Watford and EOG resources Mark G Papa have been ranked at the fourth and fifth places, respectively.
"We count compensation when it turns into cash or marketable stock; we do not include the value of options until the executive exercises them.
"When calculating a chief executive's total compensation for the fiscal year, we count the following: salary and cash bonuses; other compensation, such as vested stock grants; and stock gains, the value realised by exercised stock options," Forbes noted.
