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The article focuses on changes which are being seen in the CEO hiring practices of U.S. corporate boards. Boards have traditionally focused on offering candidates large salaries and fringe benefit packages, but in 2007 many are choosing to overlook candidates that are seeking such salaries and packages, are basing benefits packages on performance, and are also hiring lawyers to negotiate hiring package details. Sharper Image Corp.'s hiring of Steven A. Lightman is presented as an example.

The article presents the author's opinions on ten methods which could be used by corporations to restore investor confidence in executive compensation management and avoid unreasonable compensation. Discussed methods include making sure that the companies' boards of directors don't work for management, and eliminating severance pay for anyone with a sizable stock stake and deferred compensation account.

The article reports that reforms designed to curb extravagant executive compensation are in fact encouraging higher paychecks at the top. Stock options, intended to replace other compensation schemes, have become embroiled in a back-dating scandal. Disclosure serves to allow business leaders to see their peers paychecks and compete for the highest pay.

The article discusses lavish executive pay. Pay deals are on the rise again as is criticism of such deals from shareholders, regulators and elected officials. Executives are often paid not only for staying with a company but for leaving. For example, Nortel Networks Corp.'s outgoing chief executive will received $5 million in severance. Total compensation packages include salary, bonus, restricted stock grants, gains from exercising options and payouts from long-term incentive plans. Despite complaints that executives are paid too much, compensation keeps rising.

The article reports on the move by a range of non-financial firms to adopt executive-pay plans that follow principles recommended by U.S. government regulators. It notes that such move by the companies is indicative of a broad change in compensation plans. The change is said to be caused by the recession and not by the regulation imposed by Treasury Department pay czar Kenneth Feinberg and by the Federal Reserve. Changes adopted by the companies include higher performance hurdles for bonuses and control of perks, severance and supplemental pensions.

The article reports on the new compensation rules proposed by the U.S. Federal Reserve aimed at addressing a problem banks have not been able to manage on their own. It is noted that poorly designed performance-based pay plans have been used by Wall Street and Main Street banks which had negative results. According to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, some pay practices of banks resulted in misaligned incentives.

Reports that the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and state regulators are taking a more detailed look at the compensation of officials of nonprofit groups as the result of a wave of corporate scandals and mounting public outcry over executive pay. Comments from Steve T. Miller, director of the IRS's exempt-organizations divisions, regarding the effort to investigate nonprofits; Number of nonprofit groups where an executive or board member earns more than $1 million a year, according to the IRS; Differences between nonprofit and not-for-profit organizations; How nonprofit groups are to base their compensation decisions.

Focuses on the compensation and wages being given to chief executive officers (CEO). Comments from Michael H. Jordan, who was recruited by Electronic Data Systems Corp., regarding the compensation package he received; Why boards of directors are changing the compensation packages awarded to CEOs; Comments from Richard L. Trumka. secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, regarding companies' acceptance that excessive compensation does not sit well with shareholders; Statistics indicating CEO salaries are still rising, according to proxy statements for several major U.S. corporations analyzed by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. INSET: WHO MADE THE BIGGEST BUCKS.

Reports a decrease in the practice of corporations offering "megagrants," huge offerings of stock options or restricted stock, to executives as an incentive to attract or keep a prized executive because megagrants have come to be a symbol of corporate excess in executive compensation. Percentage of chief executive officers' stock grants resulting from megagrants in 2003, indicating a decrease from previous years, according to an analysis performed by Mercer Human Resource Consulting; Comments from Peter Chingos, head of Mercer's U.S. executive-compensation practice, regarding the image of these megagrants.

Reports that several corporate boards are seeking to recover pay from ex-chief executive officers (CEO). Description of case involving the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and its former-CEO Dick Grasso; Amount of money being sought from Freddie Mac's former chief Leland Brendsel; View of corporate-governance experts that the boards themselves are partly to blame for previous unsuccessful efforts to recover pay given to disgraced former-CEOs; Comments from Roger W. Raber, president of the National Association of Corporate Directors, regarding directors' liabilities with respect to compensation packages; Discussion of the case involving Kmart Holding Corp.

Examines whether the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) did not adhere to rules of corporate governance that are practiced by many companies. Amount of the compensation package given to Dick Grasso, the NYSE's chairman, that has created the controversy about the NYSE's corporate governance; Comments from Alan Johnson, managing director of pay consultants Johnson & Associates, regarding the lack of governance at the NYSE; Amount of additional compensation that Grasso is due to receive that the NYSE did not initially disclose; Role of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in investigating the compensation package given to Grasso; Influence of Grasso in assigning committee members at the NYSE.