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Alabama: O. B. Grayson Hall, Jr.
Company: Regions Financial
Total compensation: $9438642
Rank among all states: #34
Highest paid CEO in every state
A recent survey from the Stanford Graduate School of Business revealed that the median respondent believes the average CEO of a top 500 American company makes $1 million annually. Of that same pool of respondents 74% were adamant that these executive salaries were not "the correct amount relative to the average worker" which serves to suggest that they would be even more displeased to find that the real median CEO salary amongst the top 500 companies is a whopping $10.3 million.
While the massive companies whose revenues drive these high-executive salaries are typically thought to be headquartered in big financial superhubs like New York's Wall Street and California's Silicon Valley there is actually a much greater geographic diversity to the nation's leading corporations and their respective executives.
In underscoring how many places around the country boast big companies with wealthy executives Stacker used data from Equilar and the Associated Press to list the best-compensated CEO from every state with available data. Since the study only considered publicly traded companies that accumulated revenues of at least $1 billion the following states are omitted from the story: Alaska, Montana, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Read on to discover the highest-paid CEO in your state.
ALSO: Click here to see the highest paid CEOs in America.
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2 / 46
Arizona: Richard C. Adkerson
Company: Freeport-McMoRan
Total compensation: $16194102
Rank among all states: #23
3 / 46
Arkansas: C. Douglas McMillon
Company: Walmart
Total compensation: $22791276
Rank among all states: #16
4 / 46
California: Michael Rapino
Company: Live Nation Entertainment
Total compensation: $70615760
Rank among all states: #2
5 / 46
Colorado: Gregory B. Maffei
Company: Liberty Media & Qurate Retail Group
Total compensation: $67622019
Rank among all states: #4
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6 / 46
Connecticut: Mark T. Bertolini
Company: Aetna
Total compensation: $18702992
Rank among all states: #21
7 / 46
Delaware: Hervé Hoppenot
Company: Incyte
Total compensation: $16087031
Rank among all states: #24
8 / 46
Dist. of Columbia: Thomas P. Joyce
Company: Danaher
Total compensation: $14779478
Rank among all states: #26
9 / 46
Florida: Brian D. Jellison
Company: Roper Technologies
Total compensation: $29158675
Rank among all states: #10
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Georgia: Frank J. Bisignano
Company: First Data
Total compensation: $102210396
Rank among all states: #1
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11 / 46
Hawaii: Constance H. Lau
Company: Hawaiian Electric Industries
Total compensation: $5381983
Rank among all states: #39
12 / 46
Idaho: Thomas K. Corrick
Company: Boise Cascade
Total compensation: $4102673
Rank among all states: #41
13 / 46
Illinois: Debra A. Cafaro
Company: Ventas
Total compensation: $25254607
Rank among all states: #13
14 / 46
Indiana: N. Thomas Linebarger
Company: Cummins
Total compensation: $13151465
Rank among all states: #29
15 / 46
Iowa: Daniel J. Houston
Company: Principal Financial Group
Total compensation: $9406128
Rank among all states: #35
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Kansas: Michael J. Brown
Company: Euronet Worldwide
Total compensation: $3860972
Rank among all states: #42
17 / 46
Kentucky: Scott L. Thompson
Company: Tempur Sealy International
Total compensation: $18021396
Rank among all states: #22
18 / 46
Louisiana: Glen F. Post, III
Company: CenturyLink
Total compensation: $14319617
Rank among all states: #27
19 / 46
Maine: Melissa D. Smith
Company: WEX
Total compensation: $10847606
Rank among all states: #33
20 / 46
Maryland: David M. Zaslav
Company: Discovery Communications
Total compensation: $42247984
Rank among all states: #7
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Massachusetts: Stephen Kaufer
Company: TripAdvisor
Total compensation: $43160584
Rank among all states: #6
22 / 46
Michigan: Mary T. Barra
Company: General Motors
Total compensation: $21905256
Rank among all states: #18
23 / 46
Minnesota: James M. Cracchiolo
Company: Ameriprise Financial
Total compensation: $22433422
Rank among all states: #17
24 / 46
Mississippi: Joe F. Sanderson, Jr.
Company: Sanderson Farms
Total compensation: $6640211
Rank among all states: #37
25 / 46
Missouri: Michael F. Neidorff
Company: Centene
Total compensation: $25259468
Rank among all states: #12
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26 / 46
Nebraska: Lance M. Fritz
Company: Union Pacific
Total compensation: $11303088
Rank among all states: #32
27 / 46
Nevada: Stephen A. Wynn
Company: Wynn Resorts
Total compensation: $34522695
Rank among all states: #8
28 / 46
New Hampshire: Timothy McGrath
Company: PC Connection
Total compensation: $1648275
Rank among all states: #46
29 / 46
New Jersey: Alex Gorsky
Company: Johnson & Johnson
Total compensation: $22995564
Rank among all states: #15
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New Mexico: Patricia K. Collawn
Company: PNM Resources
Total compensation: $4425922
Rank among all states: #40
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31 / 46
New York: Leslie Moonves
Company: CBS
Total compensation: $68375015
Rank among all states: #3
32 / 46
North Carolina: Brian T. Moynihan
Company: Bank of America
Total compensation: $21355481
Rank among all states: #19
33 / 46
North Dakota: David L. Goodin
Company: MDU Resources Group
Total compensation: $3727609
Rank among all states: #43
34 / 46
Ohio: W. Nicholas Howley
Company: TransDigm Group
Total compensation: $61023102
Rank among all states: #5
35 / 46
Oklahoma: Robert D. Lawler
Company: Chesapeake Energy
Total compensation: $14903906
Rank among all states: #25
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36 / 46
Oregon: Bryan B. DeBoer
Company: Lithia Motors
Total compensation: $5878631
Rank among all states: #38
37 / 46
Pennsylvania: Brian L. Roberts
Company: Comcast
Total compensation: $32520224
Rank among all states: #9
38 / 46
Rhode Island: Scott C. Donnelly
Company: Textron
Total compensation: $13148547
Rank among all states: #30
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South Carolina: John D. Williams
Company: Domtar
Total compensation: $7030262
Rank among all states: #36
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South Dakota: David R. Emery
Company: Black Hills
Total compensation: $3408005
Rank among all states: #44
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Tennessee: Mark J. Costa
Company: Eastman Chemical
Total compensation: $14040802
Rank among all states: #28
42 / 46
Texas: Randall L. Stephenson
Company: AT&T
Total compensation: $25614625
Rank among all states: #11
43 / 46
Utah: Harris H. Simmons
Company: Zions
Total compensation: $3240180
Rank among all states: #45
44 / 46
Virginia: Phebe N. Novakovic
Company: General Dynamics
Total compensation: $21200768
Rank among all states: #20
45 / 46
Washington: John J. Legere
Company: T-Mobile US
Total compensation: $23631206
Rank among all states: #14
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Wisconsin: Jonas Prising
Company: ManpowerGroup Inc.
Total compensation: $11987873
Rank among all states: #31
