How Much Are Rhode Island’s Top CEOs Paid?
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
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.
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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%.
