Many of the highest earners among organizations in the Standard & Poor's 500 index are healthcare sector CEOs, according to a report from Equilar, a provider of executive, board and governance data solutions.
Each year, Equilar examines CEO pay at the 100 largest companies by revenue that file proxy statements before April 1. Among CEOs in the Equilar 100, average pay totaled $16.6 million in fiscal year 2016 and total compensation climbed a median of 6 percent from the year prior.
"This year's increase in CEO pay was the largest acceleration we've seen for this study since 2013," said Dan Marcec, director of content at Equilar. "While most of these awards were granted well before the presidential election, the bullish market in 2016 seems to have had a positive influence on compensation design."
Twenty companies in the healthcare sector are included on this year's Equilar 100. Each of these companies is listed below along with their CEO's total compensation for FY 2016. Total compensation includes information disclosed in company proxy statements, including salary, bonus, stock and options valued at grant date, and other compensation disclosed in the summary compensation table of the proxy statements. Total compensation does not include pension and deferred compensation values.
1. Michael F. Neidorff, Centene (St. Louis) — $21.97 million
2. Alex Gorsky, Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, N.J.) — $21.21 million
3. Pierre Nanterme, Accenture (Dublin, Ireland) — $18.5 million
4. Larry J. Merlo, CVS Health (Woonsocket, R.I.) — $18.36 million
5. Richard A. Gonzalez, AbbVie (North Chicago, Ill.) — $17.74 million
6. Ian C. Read, Pfizer (New York City) — $16.99 million
7. Giovanni Caforio, Bristol-Myers Squibb (New York City) — $16.93 million
8. Joseph R. Swedish, Anthem (Indianapolis) — $16.46 million
9. Miles D. White, Abbott Laboratories (Chicago) — $16.42 million
10. John C. Lechleiter, Eli Lilly (Indianapolis) — $15.22 million
11. David M. Cordani, Cigna (Bloomfield, Conn.) — $15.21 million
12. Timothy Wentworth, Express Scripts (St. Louis) — $14.52 million
13. John F. Milligan, Gilead Sciences (Foster City, Calif.) — $13.94 million
14. Thomas J. Falk, Kimberly-Clark (New York City) — $13.76 million
15. George S. Barrett, Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ohio) — $13.66 million
16. Bruce D. Broussard, Humana (Louisville, Ky.) — $12.21 million
17. R. Milton Johnson, HCA Holdings (Nashville, Tenn.) — $11.83 million
18. Trevor Fetter, Tenet Healthcare (Dallas) — $10.14 million
19. Stefano Pessina, Walgreens Boots Alliance (Deerfield, Ill.) — $10.14 million
20. J. Mario Molina, MD, Molina Healthcare (Long Beach, Calif.) — $9.88 million
Access the full list of companies on the Equilar 100 here.
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