Top women CEOs are earning more – but they’re still outnumbered

Female CEOs are outpacing their male colleagues in pay, although they remain vastly outnumbered in the top echelons of American companies.

Last year, the median pay for women CEOs rose to $15.9 million, a 21 percent gain from a year earlier, according to a study by executive compensation data firm Equilar and The Associated Press. That compared with median pay for male CEOs of $10.4 million, which was down 0.8 percent from 2013.

Marissa Mayer, the head of Yahoo, was the highest-paid female chief executive in the Equilar/AP pay study. Her compensation was almost double that of the next-highest earner on the list — Carol Meyrowitz of discount retailer TJX Companies.

Still, there is a big caveat: There are far fewer female CEOs than males among large U.S companies. The study of 340 CEOs included 17 women. Here are the Top 5 women wage earners:

No. 1: Marissa Mayer, Yahoo, $42.1 million, up 69 percent

Yahoo’s stock price has climbed 177 percent since the technology company hired Mayer from Google in July 2012.

No. 2: Carol Meyrowitz, TJX Companies, $23.3 million, up 13 percent

Meyrowitz has led the parent company of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and other stores, since January 2007. For the year that ended in January, the company reported profit of $2.22 billion on revenue of $29.08 billion.

No. 3: Margaret Whitman, Hewlett-Packard, $19.6 million, up 11 percent

When Whitman rejoined HP in 2011, the company's board established an initial salary of $1 a year. For 2014, the board decided it was time to raise the salary portion of her pay package – which includes a $1.5 million base salary – to make it consistent with her peers at similar technology companies.

No. 4: Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo, $19.1 million, up 45 percent

PepsiCo., which makes Frito-Lay snacks, Gatorade sports drinks and Quaker oatmeal, has improved its performance by raising prices and slashing costs.

No. 5: Phebe Novakovic, General Dynamics, $19 million, up 1 percent

Novakovic was a senior executive at General Dynamics for more than a decade before she was promoted to the top job in January 2013. Since she took the position, the defense contractor’s stock has doubled.

This story was originally published May 29, 2015 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Top women CEOs are earning more – but they’re still outnumbered."