Exec Pay: Who makes what in wireless?

Exec Pay: Who makes what in wireless?

Few issues stoke the ire of workers like executive pay. The average CEO of Standard & Poor's 500 company list made $15.06 million in 2006, which is the most recent year for executive compensation figures. The ten U.S.-based, public wireless company CEOs whose pay we tracked averaged about $18.34 million in 2006. Only half of them are on Standard & Poor's 500 list. 

Because every company has their own nuanced approach to executive compensation, we tried to make it easy and follow the new 2006 rule that the SEC requires public companies to disclose total compensation, which includes salary, bonus and "other" compensation. The "other" compensation category includes vested restricted stock grants and "stock gains," the value realized from exercising stock options during the past fiscal year.

Just today AT&T announced its executive compensation figures for 2007. Chairman, president and CEO Randall Stephenson, who took over from Ed Whitacre Jr., received total compensation of close to $22 million. President and CEO of AT&T Mobility Stanley Sigman received compensation of $36.9 million, before he retired at year-end. Ralph de la Vega, who took over for Sigman, received $12.4 million in 2007.

Whether it was because of retirement or a forced resignation, some of the CEOs in our top ten list--Sprint Nextel's Gary Forsee, Motorola's Ed Zander and AT&T's Ed Whitacre Jr.--are no longer at their posts. Take a look back at what these executives and their still-gainfully-employed colleagues made back in 2006. How much does it cost to retain a wireless leader? Here are ten answers that brought varying degrees of success. Click here to see the start of the report, or select a name below. -Brian