Tech CEOs get bigger salaries
Chief executive officers at U.S. venture-backed technology companies are earning nearly $30,000 more per year in total compensation than they did a year ago.
CEOs in Silicon Valley and the Northeast enjoy the best deals overall.
The data, compiled by Dow Jones, shows that technology CEOs are earning a median $289,000 this year, up from $260,000 last year. See table below, which also shows how much vice presidents and directors are making.
Total compensation, which includes salary and bonuses, for CEOs of venture-backed healthcare companies also climbed to a median $300,000, from $284,000 a year ago. Total CEO compensation increased somewhat for the other industry tracked, products and services, to $260,000, about $10,000 higher than the year before.
Technology CEOs received the largest equity allocations of the three major industries, at 4.9 percent, compared to 4.7 percent for healthcare CEOs and four percent for “product & services” CEOs.
The survey found the median total CEO compensation across industries is 275,000, up from $263,000 a year ago. The amount of equity in their companies that CEOs reported receiving is 4.7 percent, a decline from the five percent equity allocation reported last year.
CEOs based in the Northeast do earn the largest total compensation packages, at $310,000, edging out Northern California at $300,000. However, Northeast CEOs get a median of 4.69 percent ownership of a company, less than the 4.99 percent among Northern California CEOs.
Dow Jones’ data offering, called CompensationPro, compiles data on 135 different job titles at 734 venture-backed companies—representing nearly 7,800 individuals.More than 700 executives at U.S. venture-backed companies participated in the survey, which is annualized as of April 2007
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
