With the economy and corporate growth slowing, executive pay at Georgia's largest public companies leveled off last year, but some senior managers still received hefty pay packages.

Executives for Georgia's top 25 public firms had a median compensation of $1.74 million in 2007, down about 1 percent from 2006, according to an analysis of pay packages by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Joey Ivansco/AJC (ENLARGE)

Coca-Cola Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Neville Isdell was the highest-paid Georgia executive with total compensation of $21.6 million in 2007.

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Coca-Cola Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Neville Isdell was the highest-paid executive with total compensation of $21.6 million in 2007. Joseph DeAngelo, former Home Depot executive vice president and chief operating officer, ranked second at $16.3 million. Former Delta Air Lines Chief Operating Officer James Whitehurst was third at $15.5 million.

The analysis included the pay packages of more than 125 executives, usually the top five executives at each company, listed in federal Securities and Exchange Commission filings. It calculated total compensation using salary, bonus, nonequity incentives, the estimated value of stock and options granted in that year and other compensation, such as personal use of corporate aircraft, club memberships and car allowances.

Compensation generally moved in the direction of the company's financial performance. Isdell's pay, for example, rose 4 percent from 2006, when he received a total package worth $20.9 million. In that same time frame, Coca-Cola's revenue rose 20 percent, net income increased 18 percent and the stock price, counting adjustments for dividends, was up 30 percent.

Corporate boards, which set executive pay, are paying closer attention than ever to compensation packages to make sure pay matches performance, said Jack Moran, managing director in the Atlanta offices of James F. Reda & Associates, which helps companies structure compensation packages.

The SEC started requiring companies two years ago to provide more detail about pay packages. Public outrage over excessive pay also surfaced after a series of corporate meltdowns that began with the collapse of Enron in 2004.

"All of those factors kind of created this perfect storm where companies got serious – not just giving lip service – but serious about matching up their performance with pay opportunities," Moran said. "No one wants to be an outlier unless they have performance to back it up."

Companies likely will continue to decrease compensation given in perks now that the threshold has been lowered for what must be detailed, Moran said. The new rules call for specifying any perk that costs $10,000 or more. The previous threshold was $50,000.

Detailed estimates on severance packages, now included in the filings, also are being scrutinized more closely, he said.

"Boards want to know: 'What are we on the hook for if there's a change in control?'" Moran said.

The changes in the reporting rules were a good first step for shining the light on executive pay, but more reform is needed, said Vineeta Anand, chief research analyst with the AFL-CIO office of investment. The AFL-CIO, a federation of labor unions representing 10.5 million members, publishes executive pay trends at the "Executive PayWatch" section of its Web site (www.aflcio.org).

The gap is still too great between workers and executives, Anand said. The median pay for CEOs at Georgia's top 25 public companies last year was $5.5 million, according to the AJC analysis. That's about 100 times the median income for Georgia households.

Some executives also continue to be rewarded even when the companies falter, Anand said. Executives at Countrywide Financial Corp., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Citigroup made millions of dollars even as profits plummeted in the face of the home-loan crisis.

"The CEOs seem to be made of Teflon and immune to what's swirling around them in the economy," Anand said. "Regardless of how their companies perform, they always do fine."

The AFL-CIO and other corporate watchdog groups are pushing for several key corporate governance reforms:

• Allowing non-binding shareholder votes on executive compensation. AFLAC, a Columbus-based insurance company, is one of the few U.S. companies that has adopted this "say-on-pay" policy.
• Requiring independent executive pay consultants who do not do other consulting work for the companies.
• Revising SEC rules to give shareholders the ability to place the names of their individual board nominees on company proxies. These board members, in turn, could help shape corporate pay packages. Companies can now block shareholders from putting individual nominees on proxy material.

The AFL-CIO, an investor in companies through union retirement plans, is not against seeing executives do well, Anand said. Accountability is the issue.

"As long as shareholders are sharing in the wealth, we don't have any objection to making sure the CEO gets paid a lot of money for running a good show," she said. "What we object to is when a company is run into the ground and the CEO walks away with millions of dollars."

It's good to be CEO

Georgia public companies gave their chief executive officers lucrative pay packages in 2007. The median income for CEOs at Georgia's top 25 public companies in 2007 was $5.5 million, up from about $4 million in 2006. The payoff for a CEO is not guaranteed. About half of the typical package was tied to stock and options, meaning the value will rise or fall with the fortunes of the company.

Coke is it

It paid to work for Coke last year. the Coca-Cola system produced the two highest-paid CEOs in 2007. Coca-Cola Co. Chairman and CEO Neville Isdell ranked first with a total compensation package valued at $21.6 million. John Brock, Coca-Cola Enterprises president and CEO, was second at $12.9 million. CCE is Coke's largest bottler.

Big difference for Delta

What a difference a year makes. With the company in bankruptcy court and its stock delisted, Delta's highest-paid executive in 2006 made about $550,000. In 2007, Richard Anderson, who became Delta's CEO in September, earned a pay package worth $11.3 million. More than 90 percent of his pay is tied to stock and options, which means the value has fallen significantly this year.

What about Bob?

No one in this year's list came close to matching Bob Nardelli's eye-popping $134 million compensation for 2006. The former Home Depot chairman, president and CEO has since joined Auburn Hills, Mich., automaker Chrysler LLC, a privately owned company that does not have to report executive compensation.