Options, that is, as they pass the nationwide median in long-term pay incentives (em more than their counterparts at transportation or industrial firms (em but still less than execs at automotive and consumer companies.
Among CEOs (chief executive officers) at consumer products companies, industrial concerns, and transportation firms, top executives at energy companies can now boast of long-term pay incentives accounting for some 44 percent of their overall annual pay packages. That gives energy CEOs almost $950,000 in annual long-term pay incentives (44 percent of annual pay) compared with $503,000 (28 percent) for industrial CEOs, only $225,000 (26 percent) for transportation CEOs, but a whopping $2.07 million (53 percent) for top execs at consumer products companies. The median figure nationwide comes in a about $838,000 (41 percent), as measured across eight industries (automotive, chemicals, consumers products, energy, food and beverages, industrial products, retail, and transportation).
On the other hand, a higher proportion of long-term incentives (which usually means stock options) can be seen as placing cash compensation more at risk.
Those are some of the findings from a recent study, Executive Compensation Practices in Manufacturing, Retailing & Distribution Companies, by KPMG Peat Marwick, the international accounting and consulting firm. The KPMG study found that consumer products, industrial products and energy companies are placing greater emphasis on annual and long-term incentives rather than base salary, a trend that increasingly places the pay of CEOs and other top officers at risk.