According to a recent pay study, one-quarter of the country’s 100 highest-paid CEOs earned more money last year than their companies paid in federal income tax.
The report, generated by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), found that 25 CEOs out of a group comprising the 100 top-paid U.S. CEOs earned an average of $16.7 million a year. Each of their annual earnings surpassed the amount of taxes their companies paid in 2010.
Among the CEOs at the top of the list are John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, who earned $12.4 million; Boeing CEO Jim McNerney, who earned $13.8 million; and General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, who earned $14.2 million.
IPS’s study has sparked controversy among lawmakers struggling to improve the country’s national debt and unemployment rates. According to Reuters, the study also spurred the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to call for hearings on executive pay.
The report also found that many of these companies also spent more money on lobbying efforts than they did on paying taxes. Two-thirds of the companies featured in IPS’s study kept their taxes low by creating offshore subsidiaries in Bermuda, Luxembourg and Singapore.
