The top paid U.S. HR pros earn more than a small country

And the highest-paid HR specialist in the world earns more than 100 times the median annual wage of HR specialists in America

We researched the latest available total compensation disclosures for HR professionals in publicly listed companies, and what we found was enough to make any HR specialist on a median wage green with envy. (That median wage is about $55,000 a year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

Even more shocking? Altogether, the following ten people earn more in one year than the entire gross domestic product of Tuvalu, an island nation of nearly 11,000 citizens.
  1. John Fleming, $5,916,261 (as of 2010)
Title: Executive vice president of global manufacturing and labor affairs
Organization: Ford Motor Company
Age: 63
Location: Michigan, USA
  1. John Butler, $5,873,781 (as of 2012)
Title: Executive vice president, administration, and chief human resources officer
Organization: Textron Inc.
Age: 66
Location: Rhode Island, USA
  1. Mike Mortimer, $5,242,962 (as of 2012)
Title: Executive vice president, human resources and corporate administration
Organization: Quintiles Transnational Holdings, Inc.
Age: 53
Location: North Carolina, USA
  1. Sander van 't Noordende, $4,783,617 (as of 2011)
Title: Group chief executive, management consulting
Organization: Accenture plc
Age: 50
Location: Dublin, Ireland
  1. Maria Morris, $4,108,872 (as of 2011)
Title: Executive vice president of global employee benefits
Organization: MetLife, Inc.
Age: 51
Location: New York, USA
  1. Jayne Parker, $3,989,117 (as of 2012)
Title: Executive vice president and chief human resources officer
Organization: The Walt Disney Company
Age: 51
Location: California, USA
  1. Shari Ballard, $3,689,370 (as of 2013)
Title: Chief human resources officer
Organization: Best Buy Co., Inc.
Age: 46
Location: Minnesota, USA
  1. Gerhard Rupprecht, $3,547,539 (as of 2009)
Title: Director, Labor Relations
Organization: Allianz SE
Age: 65
Location: Munich, Germany
  1. John Murabito, $3,513,157 (as of 2011)
Title: Executive vice president, human resources and services
Organization: CIGNA Corporation
Age: 55
Location: Connecticut, USA
  1. Philippe Krakowsky, $3,290,492 (as of 2012)
Title: Executive vice president, chief strategy and talent officer
Organization: The Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc.
Age: 51
Location: New York, USA

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