Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Ethan Miller/Getty Steven Davidoff at The New York Times took a look at Marissa Mayer's pay package as CEO of Yahoo, and came away with a rather stunning conclusion.

Mayer's pay from Yahoo has totaled an estimated $214 million.

Mayer's pay package comes via stock grants and options. When she was hired, the stock was $15.78 per share. Today, it's at $36. Here's how he got to his total:

As a result of the rise in the stock price, Equilar calculates, Ms. Mayer’s $56 million package had grown to be worth about $186 million as of the end of last year, after Ms. Mayer forfeited some of the stock for failure to meet some performance requirements. In addition, Ms. Mayer was awarded $12.47 million worth of restricted stock in early 2013 that had grown to $23.7 million by year-end. Add in $4.3 million in cash paid to Ms. Mayer, and the figure rises to about $214 million for 15 months of work.

Why did the stock take off? Partially, because Mayer took over and investors thought she could help fix the ailing Yahoo. But, the bigger reason is that Yahoo owns a stake in Alibaba, a company expected to IPO with a $150-billion valuation.

Mayer had nothing to do with Yahoo buying Alibaba, but she's benefiting greatly from it. Davidoff says this is evidence that executive pay should not be linked to stock performance since stock performance can have little to do with a current executive's decisions.

Read his full story here »