Average compensation among the 500 highest paid executives of Houston's publicly traded companies rose in 2015, ticking up by about $43,000, or 1 percent, to $3.62 million, according to data compiled by corporate consultants Longnecker & Associates and analyzed by the Houston Chronicle.

Top executives averaged $500,000 more in total compensation than they did five years earlier, despite Houston's biggest corporations, dominated by energy firms, having a horrendous year in 2015.