CBS Chief Paid $57M Last Year … No Word From Obama Yet

By Meg James, Los Angeles Times

CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves once again pulled down one of the richest paychecks in corporate America — and the second-largest for the head of a media company — with a compensation package totaling $57.7 million in 2010.

The 61-year-old broadcasting chief was paid $3.5 million in base salary, a $27.5-million bonus and nearly $23 million in stock and option awards, according to a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company also contributed nearly $900,000 to Moonves' pension fund and other compensation, including $2.5 million in reimbursement for taxes paid in New York.

In 2009, Moonves' pay package was valued at $43.2 million.

CBS justified the nearly 34% increase, saying that Moonves' leadership of CBS resulted in "extraordinary growth in shareholder value, and outpaced both the industry and the company's internal targets."