Is Silicon Valley executive pay out of control?

Omid Kordestani

In case you missed it, here is the list of Silicon Valley executives who made the most money last year.

It is part of a package of stories in the Merc about executive pay, and the debate surrounding it. A union guy says “executive compensation is the last unaddressed corporate scandal.” Critics of that view say pay is what lures people to Silicon Valley and gives them incentives to do great things.

Google’s Omid Kordistani heads the list, knocking off Yahoo’s Terry Semel and Oracle’s Larry Ellison from leadership position of past years. Where are Larry and Sergey on the list? At the bottom. Their stock gains came from shares they own outright, and so don’t qualify as pay from their companies, according to the Merc’s methodology.