CEOs at top-performing companies are flexing their unexercised stock option muscle, as the median value of those options surged 47.3% last year to a cool $29 million, while CEOs at weak performers saw a 51.6% decline to a flabby $5.7 million, according to Watson Wyatt. CEOs weren’t the only ones to benefit from a performance bulge; shareholders at top companies enjoyed returns of 24.5%, while their peers at poorer performers lost 3.0%.
“Despite the occasional anomaly, both shareholders and boards should be pleased by the strong correlation between an executive’s pay and how well – or poorly—a company’s stock performs,” Ira Kay, Watson Wyatt’s global director of compensation consulting, stated in a release.