IBM CEO Sam Palmisano received $21M in 2008. Though compensation of top executives is always a matter of discussion, he gets special attention because he has laid off thousands of US employees during last a few years.
In spite of the bad economy IBM had bigger gains in 2008 than in the previous year. The reported revenue was up 5%, income was $12.3B compared with $10.4B in 2007, which is 18% up. So the company’s performance wasn’t the reason for the massive job layoffs.
Palmisano’s compensation includes $1.8M salary, $5.5M bonus, estimated $12.22M stock options and awards, and $1.44M in perks and other compensation including personal use of a company aircraft. There is a huge income gap between the IBM’s top executive and most other employees who normally receive bonuses well below 5% of their salary.
