Abbott CEO pay drops 7% to $26.2M

Abbott Laboratories chief Miles White (photo [1]) always ranks near the top of our executive compensation list, and it looks as if this year will be no exception. Although his total package declined by 7 percent in 2009, he still brought in $26.2 million worth of salary, bonus, stock awards, and the like.

White's base salary grew by about 3 percent to $1.85 million, and his stock awards jumped up 66 percent to almost $12.5 million. The value of his pension and deferred comp grew to $4.29 million. But the amount of stock options Abbott awarded him dropped by more than $7 million, to a bit over $3 million. That's a decline of 71 percent. His incentive plan cash also dropped slightly, to $3.9 million from $4.2 million.

If you look back at 2007, when White made about $32 million, the differences are even more striking: He got $14.77 million worth of options that year, compared with $3.016 million this year. The overall decline between 2007 to 2009: About 18 percent.

Now, last year White came in second place on our ranking behind Johnson & Johnson's Bill Weldon (photo [2]). Where will White stand this year? Looks like we won't know until we hear from J&J.

- check out the SEC filing [3]
- see the news [4] from Dow Jones

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Abbott's not finished with dealmaking [5]
Abbott's Miles White - CEO Pay [1]
Ranking pharma's highest-paid execs [6]