That provides a clearer picture than pay totals required by the Securities and Exchange Commission, compensation experts say, because the SEC totals include expenses companies book during the year for previously granted stock compensation and retirement benefits.

The value of stock and options given to CEOs may turn out to be significantly higher or lower if they are ultimately cashed out, but the numbers in the AP formula do reflect the board of directors’estimate of the likely eventual payout. The median salary figure of about $8.4 million means half the CEOs in the AP analysis made more than that and half made less. There were some signs companies were pulling back on pay at the top: out of the 316 companies in the AP survey that had the same CEO two years running, about two-fifths lowered the total pay package for their CEOs.

Rick Wagoner, chief executive of General Motors Corp., announced earlier this month the company had to close four plants that make trucks and SUVs because of lagging demand as fuel prices soar. That followed the posting of a $39 billion loss in 2007, a year when its stock price fell by about 19 percent, without adjusting for dividends. And Wagoner? His pay rose 64 per cent, to $15.7 million. Last year was rocky for the economy and the stock market, making it a useful test of a concept called pay for performance — a term companies use to sell shareholders on the idea CEOs are being paid based on how well the company does.

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