Data show Merrill Lynch CEO gets paid top dollar

Even in the aftermath of the sub-prime mortgage fiasco at Merrill Lynch, John Thain signed on with a compensation package that totaled almost $83.8 million, making him the highest paid chief executive in America.

Overall, the financial industry annually pays their CEOs small fortunes.  The heads of four financial companies -- John Thain of Merrill Lynch, Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs ($54m), Kenneth Chenault of American Express ($50.1m), and John J. Mack of Morgan Stanley ($41.4m) -- were among the five highest paid CEOs in research conducted by NY Times and Equilar.

This graph shows the total compensation awarded to the 10 highest paid CEOs in 2007.  Total compensation includes: base salary, cash bonus, perks/other comp., stock awards, and option awards.

In April 2008, the NY Times reported, "The chiefs of the 10 largest financial service firms were awarded a combined total of $320 million last year, even though the firms reported mortgage-related losses that totaled 55 billion and wiped out more than 200 billion in shareholder value." 

Now, as debate swirls around the $700 billion dollar bailout plan, congress is deciding if companies should be allowed to give "golden parachutes" to executives and establish rules to revoke bonuses awarded on bogus claims. They are also looking into the possibility of putting a cap on executive pay.