DUBLIN — America's CEOs are the best paid people on earth. The combination of generous pay packages plus healthy dollops of stock options and a bull market have sent CEO pay up into the stratosphere. But the relationship between CEO pay and shareholder returns isn't always what you may expect. You'd think that the best paid CEOs would be the ones who do the best job for shareholders, but you'd be wrong. The WSJ breaks down this year's CEO winners and losers, although it only looks at salary and doesn't consider share-based remuneration. Take a look at the article below to learn a little about how the other half lives. – Felicity Duncan

The WSJ CEO Pay Ranking: An analysis of 2018 compensation for S&P 500 leaders

By Theo Francis and Lakshmi Ketineni

(The Wall Street Journal) Median pay reached $12.4m for CEOs of the biggest US companies in 2018, setting a fourth straight post-recession high even as stock-market returns tumbled at most of the companies. Most S&P 500 CEOs got raises of 5% or better during the year, while total shareholder return was -5.8%, according to a WSJ analysis of data from MyLogIQ. Scroll to explore the highest-paid CEOs, and the lowest, with comparisons of shareholder returns and other factors.

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