The Great Recession initially deflated CEO paychecks big-time. Chief execs at the nation’s top 350 companies saw their inflation-adjusted compensation dip 44 percent between 2007 and 2009. But CEO pay, in the years ever since, has come roaring back.

1. The Great Recession initially deflated CEO paychecks big-time. Chief
execs at the nation’s top 350 companies saw their inflation-
adjusted compensation dip 44 percent between 2007 and 2009.
But CEO pay, in the years ever since, has come roaring back.
Workers in the industries
of these CEOs haven’t done
nearly as well since 2009.
+54.3%
Where did Jim McNerney’s learn
his CEO stuff? His mentor: the now
retired General Electric CEO Jack
Welch, a top architect of
Corporate America’s late 20th
century executive pay explosion.
Our New Executive Suite Swagger
Change in compensation, 2009-2014
Today’s CEO gravy train doesn’t
stop at retirement. Meet James
McNerney, the Boeing chief
who just retired as of July 1.
ccc Sources: Lawrence Mishel and Alyssa Davis, Issue Brief #399, Economic Policy Institute,
June 21, 2015. Chicago Business, June 27, 2015. Noun Project: Wilson Joseph.
$10.6
$12.7 $12.9
$15.0 $15.7 $16.3
$10
$12
$14
$16
$18
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
CEO compensation, by millions, 2009-2014, in 2014 $
-1.7%
Top 350 CEOs Workers
McNerney CEO pay, 2005-2014:
nearly $230 million
McNerney retirement package:
$59 million
The secret to Boeing CEO McNerney’s windfall pay?
Squeezing Boeing engineers and machinists
at every opportunity, no matter the consequences.
Under McNerney, Boeing outsourced so much of its 787 Dreamliner development
that the plane came in three years late and had to be grounded, for safety, in 2013.
GE CEO Jack Welch
total pay in 2000:
$144.5 million
GE CEO Reginald
Jones pay in 1975:
$500,000
10.9%
997.2%
Workers
CEOs
The Big Picture: U.S. corporate pay increases, 1978-2014
Adjusted for inflation, compensation up
Originally published in the July issue of Too Much, the Institute for Policy Studies
newsletter on excess and inequality. Subscribe at www.toomuchonline.org.