Reality check: RB's third annual executive compensation report tracks the restaurant industry's 100 highest paid CEOs

A survey of executive compensation for the top 100 CEOs in the restaurant industry for 1994 shows a marked decline in overall earnings levels. Overall compensation for these CEOs reached $61.1 million, which is just over 50% of what the Top 10 received in 1993. The discrepancy in these figures stems from a sharp decline in the value of corresponding stocks making the executives' stock options less appealing for cashing out. The top earner in 1994 was Taco Cabana's Richard Cervera with $4.3 million, versus 1993's top earner, Brinker's Ron McDougall with $20.7 million.
FOR SOME OF THE INDUSTRY'S BEST-PAID CEOs, LAST YEAR BROUGHT A RETURN TO earth. The $20-million-range compensation packages of 1993 were nowhere to be seen in 1994, deflated by a [...]