Reeling in a $10 million paycheck would probably be a huge disappointment to head honchos at corporate behemoths like Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) and CBS (NYSE:CBS), but for most Americans, it’s an unfathomable amount of moolah.
Based on a new study conducted by The Associated Press, CEOs of typical publicly owned companies on average made $9.6 million in 2011. That figure, which is up more than 6% from 2010 results, is the highest it has been since 2006. That’s 12 times the total of gross income that President Obama reported last year.
Although the study showed a decline in exorbitant cash bonuses that top leaders tend to earn, stock rewards went up. Since stock value and company success often go hand-in-hand, the logic is that stock options will motivate a CEO to boost performance.
Compared to the $137 million Simon Property Group (NYSE:SPG) CEO David Simon made last year, $10 million is chump change. Note: About $132 million of Simon’s salary was in stock options.
In a separate report, the AP conducted some math to drum up a few interesting tidbits on just how much these lofty figures mean to the average American worker. Here are some of the findings:
- It would take a minimum-wage ($7.25 per hour) earner nearly 9,096 years to make $137 million.
- A person making $39,312 a year (the national average), would have to work 3,489 years to make as much as Simon did in 2011.
- A minimum-wage worker would have to put in 636 years to make the median CEO salary.
- It would take a person making the national average salary about 244 years to make close to $10 million.
- Based on a 60-hour work week, Simon made $43,963.64 an hour.
- Typical CEOs make much less an hour than Simon, but a mind-boggling amount more than the average person. Based on a 60-hour work week, the average CEO gets paid $3,072.84 an hour — that’s more than some people make a month.
You can glean more jaw-dropping stats by reading the complete report from the AP.
