He even surpassed the chairman of Apple and Microsoft. Who is the ‘salary king’ of 222.9 billion won?

Last year, the salaries of CEOs of the top 100 U.S. companies increased by 11.4% compared to the previous year. The first place was Broadcom CEO, who received $162 million (about 222.9 billion won).

According to the ‘2024 Equila 100’ report published by US market research company Equila on the 23rd (local time), the median annual salary of CEOs of the top 100 US companies last year was $23.7 million. This is an 11.4% increase compared to the previous year, 2022.

The reason why CEOs’ salaries have increased is because the value of the ‘stock award’, which accounts for about 65% of their annual salary, has increased. A stock award is a type of stock option and refers to a bonus paid in the form of stocks. Equila said that as of last year, the median stock award value of CEOs increased approximately 20.9% from $12.6 million to $15.3 million.

Compensation received in cash also increased compared to the previous year. Last year, total cash compensation for CEOs was $6.1 million, a 4% increase from the previous year. Among these, bonus payments also increased by 2.4% to $3.9 million.

The increase in cash compensation is due to the strong performance of the top 100 companies. The median total return for these companies increased 13.8% compared to the previous year, and Equila found that CEOs received reasonable compensation thanks to this strong performance.

Broadcom CEO Hok Thanh (pictured) ranked first in CEO salary in the United States. Last year, he received $162 million, making him one of three people with an annual salary in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Nikesh Arora, CEO of cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks, who received $151.4 million, and Sue Nabi, CEO of beauty company Coty, who received $149.4 million, also recorded annual salaries in the hundreds of millions. It was found that most of their annual salary came from stock awards.

Apple CEO Tim Cook ranked 6th with $63,209,845 (approximately 86.9 billion won), a 36% reduction from the previous year. Microsoft (MS) CEO Satya Nadella, who ranked 9th, received $48,512,537 (about 66.7 billion won), a 12% reduction from 2022.

The median sales of companies selected as one of the top 100 companies last year at the end of the fiscal year was $25.1 billion. Apple has ranked first in sales for five consecutive years and is expected to have achieved more than $383 billion last year.

[한재범 기자]