CBS Corp. Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves received $62.2 million in total compensation in 2012, a drop of 11 percent that still left him among the highest paid executives in the US.
Moonves’ pay, reported according to regulatory standards, consisted of salary, bonus, awards, option awards, a gain in his pension and other compensation, the filing showed. His 2011 total was $69.9 million.
Total pay for Moonves, 63, was almost five times the average of CEOs in the Standard & Poors 500 index, underscoring the high pay of media executives relative to peers in other industries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Last year, media executives earned 60 percent more than Wall Street chiefs, whose pay has drawn scrutiny from Congress and activists.
“If the company becomes high paid, it tends to stay high paid,” said Graef Crystal, a consultant to Bloomberg on executive compensation. “It’s like it is passed on from father to son. If someone is making a fortune and you get the job, you can’t be an idiot. You have to get the same amount of money.”