J&J chief turns down pay raise

Behind Door No. 2 in executive compensation land, we find Johnson & Johnson CEO Bill Weldon (photo). The scoop lies within a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but in this case it's not the sort of arrangement a company seeks to hide--especially not now, when the economy is in a recession and layoffs are the order of the day (J&J laid off some 5,000 folks in 2007).

The news? Weldon turned down a merit-pay increase in his base salary for 2009. The compensation committee had offered him the increase, but Weldon recommended that his base salary remain at $1.8 million "in recognition of the current global economic environment," the AP reports. For 2008 he'll reap a $3.5 million bonus, 85 percent of that in cash.

- read the AP story
- see the article in the Wall Street Journal

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