How Much Are Rhode Island’s Top CEOs Paid?

Email to a friend Permalink

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

GoLocalProv Business Team

With the Presidential campaign being defined by a political battle over how much the 1% should pay in taxes, the AFL-CIO is weighing in with its own insights into how much corporate CEOs are paid. The union-backed initiative called, "Executive Paywatch" reports on the compensation of each CEO at Rhode Island's publicly traded companies. 

The top 1% of Americans earn 343,927 per year in taxable income, according to Bankrate.com and the top executives make the 1%'s income look insignificant.  Led by CVS CEO Larry Merlo, the top 10 RI CEO's earn on average $4,218,458 - more than twelve times the 1% of top earners. Merlo earned more than $14 million in compensation for leading the Woonsocket-based health retail chain.

The AFL-CIO used 2010 or 2011 data to report the CEO's compensation. 

The "Executive Paywatch" report also lists some other notable CEOs. The highest compensated CEO in the US, according to the AFL-CIO report, Apple CEO Timothy Cook, earned more than $377 million. Rhode Islanders might be interested that Cumulus radio CEO Lewis Dickey, whose company owns WPRO AM and FM as well as a number of other radio stations in RI and has laid off about 25% of its RI work force, earned just under $20 million and ranked 80th.

For those who remember when Harrah's Entertainment tried to build a destination casino in Rhode Island, that company's CEO, Gary Loveman, earned just over $18 million per year and ranked as the 100th highest paid CEO.

Just for the record, according to the AFL-CIO's federally filed 990 report, the union's President earns in excess of $360,000 in total compensation, making Richard Trumka an officlal member of the 1%.

Enjoy this post? Share it with others.

Email to a friend Permalink

---

Write your comment...

You must be logged in to post comments.