New Jersey CEOs Among 'Most Overpaid' In America: Study

The average CEO of an S&P 500 company reportedly makes about 335 times what their employees take home. But do they deserve it?

Last month, nonprofit watchdog group As You Sow released its annual list of “Most Overpaid CEOs,” which named several New Jersey business leaders among its ranks. The study reached its conclusion by comparing each company’s financial performance to the CEO’s total executive compensation.

Read the full report and see the study’s methodology here.

“Paying [a CEO] excessive amounts of money can lead people to make the false assumption that such compensation is justified and earned,” As You Sow claims. "Simply put, it is not good for our society and overall economic growth to keep putting more and more money in the hands of just a few people. It raises the cost of capital for U.S. companies and reduces our competitiveness. It’s also neither accurate nor wise to attribute the performance of an entire corporation, with its tens or hundreds of thousands of employees, to just one or two people."

New Jersey business leaders included in the As You Sow 2017 "Most Overpaid CEO" list included:

• #9 - Dave Cote, Honeywell International (Morris Plains), $34.5 million total compensation
• #30 - Stephen Holmes, Wyndham Worldwide (Parsippany), $14.9 million
• #43 - Kenneth C. Frazier, Merck & Co. (Kenilworth), $24.2 million
• #55 - Robert Hugin, Celgene (Summit), $22.4 million
• #69 - Irene Rosenfeld, Mondelez International (East Hanover), $19.6 million

According to As You Sow, the national top 10 “Most Overpaid CEOs” were:

1. Leslie Moonves, CBS, $56.7 million total compensation
2. Marc Benioff, SALESFORCE.COM, $33.3 million
3. David M. Zaslav, DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS, $32.3 million
4. Sandeep Mathrani, GENERAL GROWTH PROPERTIES, $39.2 million
5. Leonard S. Schleifer, REGENERON PHARMACEUTICALS, $47.4 million
6. Safra A. Catz and Mark V. Hurd, ORACLE CORPORATION, $106.4 million
7. Philippe Dauman, VIACOM, $54.1 million
8. Jeffrey M. Leiden, VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS, $28 million
9. David M. Cote, HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL, $34.5 million
10. Larry J.Merlo, CVS HEALTH. $28.9 million

Photo via Wikimedia Commons: David Cote, right, accepts Chief Executive Magazine's 2013 CEO of the Year award

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