CEO pay is determined by a company’s board of directors. Those directors are compensated for the time they spend shaping the company’s strategy. Here’s what the Fortune 100 executives paid each other from 2008 to 2012.
From January 2008 to November 2009, if you bought shares in companies when Eugene R. McGrath joined the board, and sold them when he left, you would have a -47.3 percent return on your investment, compared to a -28.8 percent return from the S&P 500.
Jan. 1, 2000 to Nov. 3, 2009
Other board members at Merck during this time were C. Robert Kidder, Carlos E. Represas, Craig B. Thompson and 13 more.
The Pay Pals project relies on financial research conducted by the Center for Economic Policy and Research.
Sources: Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, Merck SEC filings (2008, 2009).
By Shane Shifflett, Jay Boice, Hilary Fung and Aaron Bycoffe