Executive Compensation — More Than Pocket Change

WIDENING OF the wage disparity between the ranks of top executives and workers has been getting some play in this presidential election season. So how does the take-home pay of the top printers stack up? Printing Impressions’ 18th annual executive compensation report highlights the earnings of principal officers at the largest publicly held printing companies.

There was a significant shake-up of the list this year. Several top executives—and companies—dropped from the ranks as a result of the major merger/acquisition activity in 2007. Other companies had personnel changes at the top, and a few repeat executives saw their compensation totals dramatically impacted by the lack of a bonus having been paid in the current reporting period.

The rankings reflect executive compensation reported for the most recent fiscal year, previous fiscal year totals, and the percentage change in compensation between the two fiscal years shown.

In cases where executives weren’t in their current top management positions for all of the company’s latest fiscal year, their totals combine the compensation they earned in each position for the corresponding period of the year.

There is a distortion in the percentage increase reported for Robert Burton due to the fact that he only held the top position at Cenveo for about one-third of the company’s previous fiscal year. Burton’s compensation did still increase on a pro-rated basis, but much more modestly.

On a true year-to-year comparative basis, Scientific Games’ Cliff Bickell was the big winner with a 93 percent jump in total compensation. The company saw its sales increase by 15 percent.

This information is derived directly from the most recent proxy statements of publicly held U.S. and Canadian (where available) printing firms. Printing Impressions uses base salaries, bonuses and other annual compensation to establish pay levels.

In order to provide some basis for meaningful comparison, we do not include any stock options, which may or may not have been exercised, or LTIP payouts since both can vary greatly from year to year. Adding in this long-term compensation would greatly increase the total yearly earnings of many of the executives.