Aflac CEO Dan Amos got a 34 percent pay raise to $18.6 million last year, making him the highest-paid top executive among the Georgia companies that have reported compensation so far this year.
Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO at Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange Group, came in a close second, with $18.0 million in compensation last year, according to a recent filing by the financial market operator. Sprecher’s pay more than doubled as he led the firm in its acquisition last year of NYSE Euronext.
Aflac, a Columbus-based insurance company, said in a filing Thursday its higher pay stemmed from “solid” financial results that enabled top executives to hit most performance targets.
Aflac’s profit rose 10.2 percent last year, to $3.2 billion. But revenue fell almost 6 percent last year, to $23.9 billion, partly due to the impact of a weaker yen in Japan, which accounts for most of the company’s business.
Amos’ pay included a $1.4 million salary and $4.7 million bonus — down from a $6.5 million total the previous year — plus a slowdown in the growth of his pension benefits and perks such as aircraft use and the cost of security personnel.
But Aflac also more than doubled Amos’ stock awards over the previous year, to $10.8 million from $4.5 million in 2012.
Corporate executives have typically collected their biggest pay-outs from such stock-based awards as they “vest,” or transfer to the executives’ ownership, and earlier awards rise in value if the company’s stock rises.
Aflac reported that Amos reaped $15.4 million last year from such stock and stock option grants from earlier years.
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