CEO Meg Whitman makes just a $1 salary, but when stock, options, and other goodies are included, her total pay last year was a hefty $15 million. Contrast that with, say, Whole Foods' John Mackey: His total pay was just over $69,000.
Kinder gets paid a $1 base salary, and even reimburses the company for the cost of his parking and health-care premiums. But hey, billionaires can afford those kinds of sacrifices. Last year, he realized stock gains worth $1.1 billion from shares he received after Kinder Morgan went private in 2007.
The company points out that Kinder received the shares directly from investors at no cost to public shareholders, and that he invested "substantial amounts" of his own money into the management-led buyout.