Pfizer's Kindler Got $4.2 Million Pay Raise, Despite What Business Press Says

(MoneyWatch)  To hear the business press tell it, Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler took a pay cut in 2008. That's not what Pfizer's proxy statement, filed this morning, says.

Kindler's total compensation rose from $9.5 million to $13.7 million in 2008. His basic salary rose from $1.4 million to $1.6 million. His stock awards rose from $1.1 million to $4.7 million. His options went up, his pension plan went up and his "other" compensation -- $438,261, a mere bagatelle! -- was flat.

Did anything go down? Yes, his bonus. It was zero this year ($3.1 million last year). But that was almost completely offset by a "Non-equity Incentive Plan" that paid him $3 million (zero the year before). What a pleasant coincidence for the Kindler family!

These riches were showered on Kindler during a year when, as Reuters put it,

... company profits slumped and its shares fell 22 percent.

Kindler also got to fly around in a private jet, and a helicopter, and so did his wife, and they gave him a car and driver. They also gave him $10,000 to do his taxes. So why does Reuters think Kindler got poorer in 2008?

... using another methodology known as total direct compensation -- which does not include certain types of amortization -- the filing said Kindler's pay fell 5 percent in 2008 to $13.1 million.

The WSJ says the same thing:

Kindler's direct compensation for last year was valued at $13.1 million, down from about $13.8 million the year before.

This is a triumph of public relations. Yes, there is a "Total Direct Compensation Comparison" table in there showing a decline in Kindler's pay, but that table factors out "long-term stock-based compensation." As the filing itself says: "It is not intended to replace the Summary Compensation Table."

That table shows Kindler's total compensation going up, in the form of cash, stocks, options, and all the rest of it.

UPDATE: AP agrees with me.

• See previous BNET stories on pharma executive compensation:
• Pfizer Execs' Golden Parachute Is Actually a Pay Cut
• Gilead Deal Gives CV Therapeutics CEO $8.4 Million Payday Despite Lack of Profits
• Genentech's Levinson May Have No Change-of-Control Agreement in Roche Deal
• Amgen CEO Sharer: Options? No Thanks. I'll Just Take the Cash.
• Schering CEO Hassan Has $59 Million Buyout Agreement in Merck Merger
• Merck Executive Pay: $36 million, Use of Private Jet, Cash Bonuses Despite Failures