NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
The CEO's at the nation's largest companies saw their raises more than doubled in 2003 as the median raise handed out by S&P 500 companies to their top executives was 22.18 percent, according to a study by The Corporate Library.
The watchdog group said that stock options and awards of restricted stock drove the larger pay hikes. But most elements of the pay -- base salary, annual bonuses, restricted stock, long-term incentive payout, value realized from stock options and total compensation -- showed increases. The only type of compensation not to show a gain was the value of stock option grants during the year.
"This double-digit rise in pay shows that calls for pay restraint appear to be being ignored," said the statement from the group.
It said four S&P 500 companies -- Apple Computer (AAPL: Research, Estimates), Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates), Yahoo! (YHOO: Research, Estimates) and Colgate-Palmolive (CL: Research, Estimates), upped their CEO pay by well over 1,000 percent.
The compensation for all CEOs, a total sample of 1,429 companies, show median pay increases of 15 percent, up from 9 percent increases in 2002. The median is the pay increase at which there are the same number of pay increases that are greater and that are less.
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