Business: Corporate paydays that boggle the mind

In one of the richest corporate paydays ever, Ray R. Irani, CEO of oil company Occidental Petroleum Corp., received a total compensation package last year valued at $416.3-million. Most of it came from exercising stock options that blossomed from the company's big gains in its stock price.

More CEO pay disclosures are coming, but Irani's is a 2006 pay record. Walt Disney ex-CEO Michael Eisner received $570-million in 1998, while Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison grabbed $706-million in 2001.

Here are nine other CEOs, all of companies prominent in the Tampa Bay area, with their 2006 pay and earnings per hour -- from $438.84 to $19,785.31, based on a 40-hour workweek:

David Cote, Honeywell International
2006 pay: $13.5-million
Per hour: $6,476.68

Charles Jenkins Jr., Publix Super Markets
2006 pay: $912,785
Per hour: 438.84

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by dj	04/11/07 10:49 PM
cops make 15.00 an hour putting their lives on the line for these morons

by Brad	04/10/07 10:18 PM
Hmmm Jamie Dimon looks kind of like Soupy Sales.

by Candi	04/10/07 10:15 PM
That's crasy, why not see if they can live on minuim wage. And all the homeless people and all why don't these big shot's dig in there pocket's and donate an hour's pay, that should just about take care of the needy for a while. No compassion 4 them!

by Laura	04/10/07 09:06 PM
Why did the Times print this? Will it do anyone any good? You better learn another language - USA gov't and leadership is doing itself right out of a job - someone else will come along with a better idea.

by Allan	04/10/07 08:34 PM
Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, V. I. Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, were right. Expropriate all of them. Expropriate all their corporations, their banks, all of it down to the toilet seats. Seize it all. Make it social property.

by Dennis	04/10/07 07:59 PM
Yeah those numbers are crazy, but isn't even more insane that people in our country make more then most of these guys just for playing football, baseball, or basketball?

by Bart	04/10/07 07:03 PM
Notice that all these high rollers are MEN???!!!!

by SAD	04/10/07 07:02 PM
Charles Jenkins Jr., Publix Super Markets 2006 pay: $912,785 Per hour: 438.84 And here they are taking away .25 from a 10.50 an hour employee.What a world we live in.

by Dale	04/10/07 05:59 PM
It figures we are paying 3.00 a gallon!!!!

by kim	04/10/07 05:55 PM
maybe this is why gas is so high because of the overpaid ceo's

by Rayanne	04/10/07 05:20 PM
No one on earth should have that much money. It's a sin.

by Debbie Ryan	04/10/07 03:44 PM
No wonder we are paying $2.79 for a gallon of gas. Let just throw more money at them, so we can no longer afford to drive, live, or better yet not have jobs cause was are sending them all overseas and this doesn't effect those higher paid.

by Cheryl	04/10/07 03:43 PM
Not a single one of them is worth that kind of salary. The consumers ultimately pay in higher fees, charges, lowered services and higher utility bills. These CEO's are disgusting!

by Ken	04/10/07 03:09 PM
And the rest of us live in the real world

by David	04/10/07 02:48 PM
No wonder gas prices and our Electric bills are going up up and away. This payscale is insane. I dont know how these people sleep at night knowing regular janes and joes are struggling to pay these bills.

by Lisa	04/10/07 02:45 PM
I bet raises for employees are probably limited to a maximum of a paltry 3%, if that, as they are at my company. This is absolutely disgusting! Greed seems to know no bounds.

by John	04/10/07 02:10 PM
That Publix guy makes $438.00 an hour and their "nickle and diming" their employees. What a bunch of quacks..

by Linda	04/10/07 01:40 PM
I'm not one to defend the filthy rich, but honestly, I don't know of any top CEO who works only 40 hours a week. more like 60 or 80.

by Karen	04/10/07 01:24 PM
This is what is wrong with America today.

by Rob	04/10/07 01:14 PM
This is obscene.

by Michael	04/10/07 12:42 PM
In America we have a habit of paying people well for doing a successful job but this goes way beyond that.Unfortunately until a majority of the citizens of America decide it is enough we will continue to read these stories in the media.

by Donna	04/10/07 12:35 PM
AND EVERYONE IS WONDERING WHY THE PRICE OF GAS IS GOING UP......MAKE THEM PAY LIKE WE DO!!!!!!!!!

by Jeremy	04/10/07 12:23 PM
A-Men Sam...how in the world could we be living in a fair, equal opportunity society, when one man makes as much per hour as most do in a year. Split their pay and you could get thousands of homeless and jobless off the streets, but that's not us.

by Kay	04/10/07 12:09 PM
Well said Sam. Notice that there are no women on this list? Imagine if they took, say, 2 mil and distributed it (equally) to all employees who currently earn below 50k? Nice gesture, never would happen of course.

by Spud	04/10/07 12:06 PM
People, wake up, as you struggle to make ends meet with no job security or health benefits, republician fat cats are taking money right out of you pockets and enjoying the good life, while you struggle. Demand the impeachment of Bush.

by Nancy	04/10/07 11:44 AM
Then we wonder why our oil prices are so high and that interest in the banks is so low. So many hungry, homeless people that money could help.

by david	04/10/07 11:00 AM
And of course we don't think there is anything wrong with this, when there are thousands living in the street. What a wonderful thing, rationalization!

by Betty	04/10/07 09:29 AM
This is rediculous. Stockholders vote for Directors who are already wealthy CEO's . Stockholders vote them right in so it is you grease my hand and I will grease yours. Wake up Stockholders.

by Sam	04/10/07 02:19 AM
Plutocracy, Oligarchy, Kleptocracy, or Corporatocracy, call it what you will, but we definitely do not live in a democracy, not with sky high pay like this for the Overlords of the USA. We are regressing to a Feudal society, where we are the serfs.

Corporate paydays that boggle the mind

In one of the richest corporate paydays ever, Ray R. Irani, CEO of oil company Occidental Petroleum Corp., received a total compensation package last year valued at $416.3-million. More CEO pay disclosures are coming, but Irani's is a 2006 pay record.