Chicago-Area Executives Making More Money Than Everyone

By Soyoung Kwak in News on May 21, 2011 6:00PM

Even though the economy is still fighting to regain full consciousness, some of Chicago's CEOs and executives are sitting pretty on top of the money pile. According to the Chicago Tribune, the average increase in pay for top-level executives in 100 of the biggest publicly-traded regional companies came in at 24.5 percent, with annual pay for CEOs beating out the rest of the pool with a median pay increase of 43.6 percent.

What is creating these pay increases? Sources cite a better economy compared to the economy in 2008 and in 2009, as well as a healthier stock market. Who was the lucky CEO that landed the biggest pay in 2010? That would be former General Growth Properties Inc.'s CEO, Adam Metz:

General Growth's proxy, filed in March, noted that Metz earned his payout based on, among other things, a formula tied to how much was recovered in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy for unsecured creditors and certain stockholders. The compensation structure had been approved by parties in the bankruptcy, including the U.S. trustee. Metz, who made $4.7 million in 2009 at General Growth, recently joined private equity megafirm TPG as senior adviser. Metz took home nearly twice as much as the second-ranked manager, Abbott Laboratories' Miles White. Metz's payout was also 89 percent more than that of 2009's top earner, Kraft Foods Inc.'s Irene Rosenfeld.

Whether or not top CEOs actually deserve the millions they are earning is a separate issue, but you can check out the list of executives who made $10 million last year as well as search the salaries of the other executives in the 100 regional companies here.