Dive Brief:

• Four construction industry CEOs whose companies enjoyed revenue or stock boosts are on the Equilar-New York Times list of the 200 most highly compensated executives.
• The list surveys publicly-held companies valued at $1 billion or more.
• Those CEOs are:
  • No. 39: Ronald N. Tutor, of California contractor Tutor-Perini, with $25.5 million in compensation — a 193% increase from last year.
  • No. 106: Samuel R. Allen, of Deere, whose $17.1 million is a 5% drop from last year.
  • No. 132: Douglas Oberhelman, of Caterpillar, with $15.1 million in total compensation, a 26% increase.
  • No. 172: Michael S. Burke, of AECOM, with $13 million — $3 million was paid in cash.

Dive Insight:

Taking in just over $156 million places David M. Zaslav, chief of Discovery Communications, at No.1 on the Equilar-Times report for 2014. Construction's big bosses are handsomely compensated, but are not in that stratosphere. Even with their salaries combined, Tutor, Allen, Oberhelman and Burke would be outside of the Top 5, at a joint $70.7 million.

"Companies recognize that CEOs, the top dogs, determine the success or failure of the firm, so they're kind of doing what they have to," industry recruiter Frederick Hornberger told the Engineering News-Record of the high salaries.