CBS' Moonves is paid more than comparable CEOs: compensation expert

CBS paid Leslie Moonves $32 million in cash and bonuses last year, about 19 times higher than what CEOs running similar sized companies should make, according to a new study by compensation expert Graef Crystal.

Moonves' cash bonus last year included $20 million for "the successes in his role as president and chief executive officer" and $8.5 million tied to his "leadership in connection with the creation of premium content," New York-based CBS said in its proxy statement this year. Moonves also received a $3.5 million salary.

The CEOs of the top 100 largest U.S. companies made a median income of $13.9 million, up 9 percent from 2013 figures reported by Equliar, an executive pay consulting firm. The median CEO income figure would have been larger, according to Business Management Daily, if it had not been for Google CEO Larry Page, who earned a whopping $1 last year.

Oracle's Larry Ellison again topped the list, raking in $78.4 million in 2013 in a combination of cash, stock and stock options. That was more than twice as much as the second and third place finishers, Robert Iger of Disney and Rupert Murdoch of 21st Century Fox, who took home $34.3 million and $26.1 million, respectively.

For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Business Management Daily article
- see this New York Times article

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