CEOs’ Pay Boosted by 53% Rise in Options

Chief executives’ pay was bolstered in 2003 by a rising stock market that lifted the value of their stock options 53% to a median of $8.3 million, a study by compensation consultant Watson Wyatt Worldwide said.

The value of “in the money” options held by CEOs increased for the first time in three years as the Dow Jones industrial average rose 25% in 2003. The chief executives’ cash bonuses last year jumped 13% to average more than $1 million, and base pay climbed 8.3% to an average of $818,000, according to the review of 57 company proxies.

The average CEO makes 282 times the average worker, the institute said.

From Bloomberg News

* EBay Inc. said Chief Executive Meg Whitman’s total compensation more than doubled to $2.19 million last year from $804,748 in 2002.