When he became chief executive of power-generation company NRG Energy Inc. more than three years ago, Mauricio Gutierrez said his selection raised eyebrows. One reason: He is younger than most executives running S&P 500 companies. “I’m an outlier,” the 48-year-old said. “People take notice.” At America’s largest companies, chief executives under 50 are still a relative rarity. A Wall Street Journal…
The mechanics of chief-executive pay have grown ever more complex, but the rules remain simple: Strong performers get a raise. So do most of the rest. For the fourth year straight, the biggest U.S. companies set CEO pay records in 2018, a Wall Street Journal analysis found, even as a majority delivered negative stock-market returns…
Halfway through this season of “American Idol,” Katy Perry hit a milestone. That’s when her earnings as a judge on the ABC show surpassed what most chief executives in the S&P 500 made all of last year. The Wall Street Journal this week released its annual analysis of CEO pay, which hit another post-recession record in…
Median pay reached $12.4 million for CEOs of the biggest U.S. companies in 2018, setting a fourth straight post-recession high even as stock-market returns tumbled at most of the companies. Most S&P 500 CEOs got raises of 5% or better during the year, while total shareholder return was -5.8%, according to a WSJ analysis of…
In biotechnology, the rank and file are well-to-do. Many of the highest-paying employers in the health-care sector—and the entire S&P 500—were biotech companies, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal of annual disclosures for hundreds of big U.S. companies as provided by MyLogIQ. New Jersey-based Celgene Corp. , which sells a treatment of multiple myeloma, had…
The company that sells Tasers to police departments around the world paid its chief executive $246 million last year, according to a proxy filed last month, one of the biggest compensation packages for a corporate leader. The pay came in a package of stock options that Axon Enterprise Inc. gave longtime CEO Patrick Smith last year. However, the…
A union job at a shipyard, mine or factory usually comes with a steady paycheck, but some U.S. industrial companies are having a hard time figuring out who their typical workers are and how much they make. Several S&P 500 companies in the industrials and materials sector posted big swings in what they said their…
Former Vice President Joe Biden (D., Del.) is running for President again. And one of Donald Trump’s 2016 rivals thinks that Mr. Biden is the most formidable of the potential 2020 rivals. The website Mediaite notes that former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who ran against Mr. Trump in the last round of Republican primaries, sees a potential GOP problem…
It was a fruitful year for the rank and file at oil-and-gas companies, from Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM 0.25% to Phillips 66. PSX -2.57% Oil-and-gas drillers and refiners had some of the highest-paid median workers in the energy and utility sectors in 2018, according to The Wall Street Journal analysis of annual pay disclosures for hundreds of big U.S. companies as provided by…
As U.S. companies disclose what they pay typical workers, one thing is clear: A lot can change in a year. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. almost tripled what it paid its median employee last year. Median pay rose by nearly 60% at Macy’s Inc. and by almost a quarter at biotech Celgene Corp. It fell by two-thirds at Coca-Cola Co. and by more than a quarter at…