These High-Power Execs Make a Lot Less Than You

In corporate America, few status symbols rival the one-figure salary.

As companies file their annual reports disclosing how much they pay their head honchos -- and inevitably ignite outrage about exorbitant executive salaries -- consider Google Inc.

Every two weeks, the three billionaires who run the Internet search giant get a paycheck for about 4 cents. Before taxes.

Googlers Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Eric Schmidt are part of an exclusive club of top executives who drew $1 annual salaries last year. No bonuses. No stock-option grants. Other members include Richard Kinder, co-founder of energy company Kinder Morgan Inc., Apple Computer Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and his company's chairman, Roger Enrico.

Of course, these executives -- most of them company founders -- have something else in common: They're already filthy rich, thanks to ownership stakes in the companies they helped build.

In World War II, when the dollar-a-year salary gained currency, it communicated the importance of personal sacrifice in wartime. Now, the dollar sends a different message: The buck stops here. Because many of today's corporate leaders own so much of the companies they run, their personal fortunes are tied to corporate success. They succeed when the company does.

"It's a gesture to the shareholders saying 'I've got more money than I could spend in 52 lifetimes -- just pay me a dollar and I'm happy enough,' " said Graef Crystal, an executive compensation specialist.

Google founders Brin and Page have cashed in $2.2 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively, in company stock since taking the company public in 2004, and CEO Schmidt has pulled in $645 million, according to Thomson Financial. The founders each hold nearly $13 billion in stock, and Schmidt's shares are worth about $5 billion.

Jobs' current Apple shares are worth $670 million. Kinder is due to pull in $84 million this year in dividends from his Kinder Morgan stock.

A. Jerrold Perenchio, chairman and CEO of Univision Communications Inc., passed on the buck. He draws no salary at all, but his ownership stake in the Los Angeles-based Spanish-language media company is worth nearly $1.3 billion.

"They're not working for free," said Tom LaWer, a Silicon Valley executive compensation lawyer. "Saying it's a dollar salary doesn't really get to the fact that they're all fabulously wealthy."