These compensation figures are taken from the summary compensation tables included in public companies' 2007 proxy statements (DEF 14A form), as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. As such, the tallies represent essentially what each CEO cost his company in fiscal year 2007 -- not what the CEO pocketed. For example, while these numbers include stock awards and option awards, the figures in the compensation table represent the cost of these awards to the company in fiscal year 2007. That's less than face value, since the company (from a financial reporting perspective) accounts for the expense over the vesting period of the award. "You're seeing the charges of the previous awards that are vesting in that year and are being reflected in the financial statements of the company," explains Nora McCord, a consultant at Steven Hall & Partners , which specializes in executive compensation consulting. "So it's not [the full value of] what was awarded that year, it's kind of an amalgamation of what has been awarded and what is still vesting from previous years."