Hightower Lowdown

Did you make $144,000 last year?

Only two percent of Americans earn that amount of money for a year's work, but former Exxon Mobil CEO Lee Raymond, who retired last December, is among the lucky ones. Oh, mind you, he wasn't paid $144,000 a year…or even a month…or for a week's worth of work. Lee took $144,000 in pay each and every day he was at the helm, including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. His total haul during his 13-year tenure was $686 million.

And now we learn that Exxon Mobil didn't give Lee a gold watch when he retired. Instead, he got a pension package worth $400 million. Factor in this wad, and CEO Raymond made $229,000 a day. Assuming he worked eight hours every day, that's $28,000 an hour!

An official statement said simply that this kingly sum was a fair reward for Lee's "outstanding leadership of the business."Well, yes, Exxon Mobil flourished during the Raymond years, especially at the end of his term—and the executive suite at corporate headquarters was even dubbed "The God Pod." But the company's success was due not to god-like genius by Raymond, but to windfall profits generated by the rise in oil and gasoline prices. Exxon's oil wells pump out more crude every day than Kuwait, and it is the world's largest refiner of gasoline.