CEO compensation

The average CEO of an S&P 500 company brings home almost $13 million -- but some earn much more. The AP's list of the 10 highest-paid CEOs highlights where the biggest paychecks went -- and what America's companies got in return.

CEO bonuses rose 30.5% in the past year, but are the heads of large U.S. firms really earning their hefty compensation packages by creating increased profits and shareholder value? A closer look reveals wide disparities: There are some Bargain CEOs, but also some Hogs and Value Destroyers.

Though the job market remains challenging, for one group, the labor market was at its steadiest of the year last month. The number of chief executives departing their jobs fell to 79 in November, the lowest monthly number of 2010, according to job-services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Bernard Lander, founder of Touro College, received compensation of more than $4 million in 2008, making him the top-paid private college president that year. Touro trustees awarded the money to Lander after deciding he had been underpaid during his tenure as president, The Chronicle of Higher...

Gregory B. Maffei, boss of Liberty Media Corp. (LINTA), topped The Wall Street Journal list of best-paid CEOs, taking home $87.1 million. Maffei's compensation was four times larger than his 2008 package. Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle Corp. (ORCL), came in second, with a pay packet of $68.6...

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has been praised for her blunt, foul-mouthed management style. But with shares of the company down more than 14% this year, her $39 million pay package is a little hard to swallow.

So far in 2010, U.S. companies have announced stock buybacks totaling more than five times as much as they had at this time last year. But evidence suggests that such buybacks a more likely to be money losing propositions -- except for the CEOs whose bonuses they artificially inflate.

The tech giant's board gave Steve Ballmer high marks for the move into cloud computing and the successful releases of several server and enterprise software products. But his bonus took a hit due to the unsuccessful launch of the Kin handset.

Mark Hurd will receive an annual salary of $950,000 and a bonus of as much as $10 million for fiscal 2011 in his new position as president of Oracle. It's a big drop from his HP compensation.

Two large institutional investors are none too happy about the $50 million Occidental Petroleum's CEO made last year, so Relational Investors and CalSTRS are launching a fight to take over four of 13 seats on the oil and gas company's board.