the average american worker last year madeabout $37,000, a meager 1.7% gain over theprevious year. The average CEO did a bit bet-ter: $14.4 million in pay, up 51%, according toAdvertising Age’s annual salary review.

Pay for corporate chiefs ranges from zero toinfinity, give or take. The buck stopped withApple Computer CEO Steve Jobs: He made $1in fiscal ’05. (Not to worry; his restrictedshares, from an earlier grant, were worth $532million.)

IAC/InterActiveCorp Chairman-CEOBarry Diller grabbed the most loot with a pack-age worth $295 million at IAC—and another$175 million from spinoff Expedia. Most of hishaul came from cashing in old stock options.(See story on Page S-2.)

Mr. Diller was one of five bosses to scoretriple-digit millions in Ad Age’s review of paydeals for 178 executives who in 2005 led pub-licly held companies ranked in Ad Age’s 100Leading National Advertisers, 100 LeadingMedia Companies and Agency Report. Theother triple players were Capital One CEORichard Fairbank; Yahoo CEO Terry Semel;Dell Chairman Michael Dell; and Henry Sil-verman, then chairman of Cendant Corp.(since split into four companies).

Six executives took home less than$100,000: Mr. Jobs; Jerry Greenberg and J.Stuart Moore, former co-chairmen of webconsultancy Sapient Corp.; and Google CEOEric Schmidt and co-founders Larry Page andSergey Brin. (Mr. Schmidt’s stock is worthmore than $5 billion; the co-founders eachown about $15 billion in Google stock.)

For most of the CEOs, credit—or blame—for extraordinary compensation goes to stock-option grants. Options awarded in earlier yearsand exercised last year accounted for 57% ofcompensation for executives on this list.

Other long-term incentives, such as re-stricted stock grants, accounted for 16% of thetypical pay package. Bonuses were about 15%.

Salaries were just 8% of the average CEO’s to-tal compensation.

Still, base salaries weren’t so bad: an aver-age of $1.2 million, up 6.5%. By comparison,median pay for full-time American workerslast year was $36,979, up just 1.7%, accordingto Census Bureau data.

It turns out the options game often has been

rigged, with the grant date convenientlytimed—backdated—to a previous low point forthe stock. But that party is over. Numerouscompanies have revealed backdating schemes,and some high-profile executives have gottenthe boot after taking the loot.

TECH TROUBLEMost backdating incidents have occurred attech companies, which have leaned heavily onoptions as incentive compensation. Among theoptions issues facing marketers, media andtech firms:

■ Sapient co-founders Messrs. Greenbergand Moore left their posts in October after theboard found some option grants had “incorrectmeasurement dates” and were “inappropri-ately accounted for.”

■ CNET Networks Chairman-CEO Shel-by Bonnie resigned in October after the boarddisclosed “deficiencies” and “accounting er-rors” in options, “including in some instancesbackdating of option grants.”

■ Apple Computer this year disclosed “ir-regularities” in past option grants. Mr. Jobs “ina few instances…was aware that favorablegrant dates had been selected, but he did not re-ceive or otherwise benefit from these grantsand was unaware of the accounting implica-tions,” Apple reported in October.

■ Cablevision Systems in August reporteddiscrepancies in the grant dates and exerciseprices for some options. The Securities & Ex-change Commission and U.S. Attorney’s Of-fice are investigating.

■ The SEC is looking at Home Depot’sstock-option practices.

■ Sun-Times Media in November report-ed it was investigating option awards “to exec-utives and key employees” through 2003,when it stopped granting options.

■ Clorox Co. in August announced a $25

By BRADLEY JOHNSONbjohnson@crain.com

IAC/InterActiveCorp chiefmakes off with $295 million,while Apple CEO Jobs earns $1

SALARY SURVEY

Special Report

Advertising Age | December 4, 2006 | S-1

DILLER LEADS TOPEXECS IN 2005 PAY

Barry DillerChmn/CEO

IAC/InterActiveCorp

OPTIONS REALIZED: $290.2M

Jeffrey ImmeltChmn/CEO

General Electric Co.

INCENTIVE PAY:$11.7M

Robert NardelliChmn/Pres/CEO

Home Depot

STOCK GAINS:$14.7M

Peter CherninPres/ COONews Corp.

SALARY:$8.32M

Rupert MurdochChmn/CEONews Corp.

Top executives by compensation segment

See SALARYon Page S-2

TOP 25 INDUSTRY EXECUTIVESBy total compensation for leaders of major marketers, agencies and media

TOTAL 2005 % 2005 2005 2005RANK EXECUTIVE, TITLE, AGE COMPANY COMPENSATION* CHG SALARY BONUS ALL OTHER

1 Barry Diller, Chmn/CEO, 64 IAC/InterActiveCorp $295,136 NA $726 $3,250 $291,160

2 Richard D. Fairbank, Chmn/Pres/CEO, 55 Capital One 249,420 339.8 0 0 249,420

3 Terry S. Semel, Chmn/CEO, 63 Yahoo 182,889 -20.7 600 0 182,289

4 Michael S. Dell, Chmn, 41 Dell 153,228 NA 950 1,805 150,473

5 Henry R. Silverman, Chmn/CEO, 65 Cendant Corp. 139,962 483.3 3,300 12,317 124,345

6 Sumner Redstone, Exec Chmn/Founder, 82 Viacom 46,255 63.1 5,807 7,125 33,324

7 Robert J. Ulrich, Chmn/CEO, 62 Target Corp. 45,026 13.6 1,558 6,500 36,968

8 David C. Novak, Chmn/Pres/CEO, 53 Yum Brands 37,421 43.8 1,173 3,056 33,192

9 Robert C. Wright, Chmn/CEO, 62 NBC Universal 34,213 9.5 2,500 6,270 25,443

10 Martin S. Sorrell, CEO, 61 WPP Group 32,831 -6.6 1,562 2,827 28,442

11 Robert L. Nardelli, Chmn/Pres/CEO, 57 Home Depot 31,728 11.3 2,164 7,000 22,563

12 Gary D. Forsee, Pres/CEO, 56 Sprint Nextel Corp. 28,573 168.5 1,253 3,444 23,876

13 Sanford I. Weill, Chmn emeritus, 72 Citigroup 28,323 26.2 1,000 9,900 17,423

14 Peter Chernin, Pres/COO, 55 News Corp. 27,753 64.9 8,320 18,890 543

15 K. Rupert Murdoch, Chmn/CEO, 75 News Corp. 25,909 9.6 4,509 21,175 225

16 Reuben Mark, Chmn/CEO, 67 Colgate-Palmolive Co. 24,881 49.4 1,797 3,592 19,492

17 Louis C. Camilleri, Chmn/CEO, 51 Altria Group 24,737 81.4 1,663 4,200 18,874

18 Harold McGraw III, Chmn/Pres/CEO, 57 McGraw-Hill Cos. 24,670 47.7 1,172 1,828 21,670

19 Charles Prince, Chmn/CEO, 56 Citigroup 23,255 18.8 1,000 12,000 10,255

20 Mark V. Hurd, Chmn/Pres/CEO, 49 Hewlett-Packard Co. 23,245 NA 817 5,131 17,297

21 Leslie Moonves, Pres/CEO, 56 CBS Corp. 22,824 13.9 5,307 13,000 4,518

22 James Dimon, Pres/CEO, 50 JP Morgan Chase & Co. 22,339 39.0 1,000 8,400 12,939

23 Kenneth D. Lewis, Chmn/Pres/CEO, 58 Bank of America 22,028 -3.1 1,500 5,650 14,878

24 Samuel J. Palmisano, Chmn/Pres/CEO, 54 IBM Corp. 21,848 87.8 1,680 5,175 14,993

25 Kenneth I. Chenault, Chmn/CEO, 54 American Express Co. 20,259 2.3 1,092 6,000 13,167

Figures are in thousands and obtained from latest proxies. (*)Total compensation includes salary, bonus and “all other,” a combination oflong-term incentive payouts, realized gains from the sale of stock options and proxy columns labeled “other” compensation.

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BONUS:$21.2M