CEOs Now Make 257 Times More Than You

They're the $10 million men and women. Propelled by a soaring stock market, the median pay package for a CEO rose above eight figures for the first time last year. The head of a typical large public company earned a record $10.5 million, an increase of 8.8% from $9.6 million in 2012, according to an Associated Press/Equilar pay study. Some odds and ends:

• A chief executive now makes about 257 times the average worker's salary, up sharply from 181 times in 2009.

• The highest paid CEO was Anthony Petrello of oilfield-services company Nabors Industries, who made $68.3 million in 2013. Petrello's pay ballooned as a result of a $60 million lump sum that the company paid him to buy out his old contract.
• The highest paid female CEO was Carol Meyrowitz of discount retail giant TJX, owner of TJ Maxx and Marshall's. (Forbes had her at $21.8 million last year.)
• The second-highest paid CEO among companies in the S&P 500 was Leslie Moonves of CBS. Moonves' total compensation rose 9% to $65.6 million in 2013, a year when the company's stock rose nearly 70%.
• Media industry CEOs in general were paid handsomely. Viacom's Philippe Dauman made $37.2 million, while Walt Disney's Robert Iger made $34.3 million. Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes earned $32.5 million.
• The CEO who got the biggest bump in compensation from 2012 to 2013 was Rodney Sacks, the CEO of Monster Beverage. Sacks earned $6.22 million last year, an increase of 679%.

(Read more CEO compensation stories.)