For those worried about the fate of the American executive class, rest easy. C.E.O. pay officially recovered in 2011, The Times declared.

“At a time when millions of Americans are trying to hang on to homes and millions more are trying to hang on to jobs, the chief executives of major corporations like 3M, General Electric and Cisco Systems are making as much today as they were before the recession hit. Indeed, some are making even more,” The Times wrote on April 11.

The median pay for top executives at 200 major American companies was $9.6 million last year, a 12 percent increase over 2009, according to a study conducted for The Times.

Some investors argue that talented executives bring outsize returns to shareholders and are worth the big money. Others say that’s nonsense.

Albert Meyer, a money manager at Bastiat Capital in Plano, Texas, is a nonbeliever. “When compensation is excessive, that should be a red flag,” Mr. Meyer told The Times. “Does the company exist for the benefit of shareholders or insiders?”

He looks to invest in international companies whose pay packages he believes put shareholders first, among them Statoil, the Norwegian energy company.

Statoil’s share price has outperformed Exxon Mobil’s since the Norwegian company went public in October 2001, The Times reported. Helge Lund, Statoil’s chief executive, was forced to get by on about $1.8million last year, without any stock options. Meanwhile, his counterpart at Exxon, Rex W. Tillerson, reaped $21.7 million in salary, bonus and stock awards in 2009.

Mr. Tillerson’s pay is more than double the combined $8.3 million that Statoil paid its nine top executives in 2010. But not all C.E.O.’s measure their value purely in monetary terms.

David Morin, the founder of Path, a social network start-up, turned down a $100 million offer from Google, and instead raised $11 million from 27 investors so the he could retain control of his company, The Times reported. “I was humbled by the level of interest - we’re trying to build something that is deeply meaningful,” Mr. Morin told The Times.

Tony Hsieh sold his first company, LinkExchange, when he was 24 for $265 million to Microsoft. In 2009 he sold Zappos, the online shoe and clothing retailer, to Amazon for $1 billion.

For Mr. Hsieh, now 37, these days it’s all about promoting his “tribe,” or his community.

Zappos employees decorate their cubicles with posters and mementos, like a teenager’s bedroom, and costume parades in the office are a regular ritual, The Times reported. Mr. Hsieh makes a point of going to company parties and singing karaoke like a regular guy, though one who has a stake in Amazon worth about $550 million. Some say it is harder to get a job at Zappos than to get into Harvard University. Mr. Hsieh can pay a lower salary to people who crave a position at his highly social company with perks like barbecues at the boss’s house, free sodas and popcorn, and a chance to move up the corporate hierarchy. “We want them to work for us for reasons other than money,” Mr. Hsieh told The Times.


TOM BRADY