In New York City it pays to be the boss — and how.
Chief executives of 12 companies in the Big Apple are paid five times or more than the median of other named top executives on their proxy statements, according to a report in Crain’s New York Business.
Not surprisingly, media and ad company chieftains dominate the dozen.
They include CBS’ Les Moonves, Time Warner Cable’s Glenn Britt and AMC Networks’ Josh Sapan and two ad bosses, MDC’s Miles Nadal and Omnicom’s John Wren.
The report, provided by GMI Ratings, a proxy advisory firm, includes seven other firms: AmTrust Financial Services, Avon Products, Con Edison, Fifth & Pacific, Gamco Investors, Pall Corp. and Hain Celestial Group.
Proxy firms view the “internal pay equity” imbalance as cause for concern but companies interviewed for the report explained there are many reasons for the big gaps.
Moonves, for example, pulled in $60.3 million, five times more than the average of its other named executives. CBS explained Moonves is closely tied to the company’s overall success, noting its share price surged 40 percent in 2012.
Huge discrepancies could point to the presence of an “imperial CEO,” or to a board that has no plan to replace the king or queen, said Carol Bowie, head of Americas research at Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy advisory firm.
“It’s a meaningful signal,” Bowie told Crain’s. “The issues could be a lack of succession planning, or a board that’s too deferential to the CEO.”
“If we see a sizable gap in internal pay equity, we’ll ask the company, ‘What is your thought on this? How did you get to this point?,’” said Stephen Brown, senior director of corporate governance for TIAA-CREF.