It Pays To Be Boss

Dell and EMC executives talk a lot about how well the two companies will fit together once their proposed merger is finalized, but there is one area where things don't really line up: executive pay.

EMC's top executives make vastly more than privately held Dell's. Being publicly traded makes a big difference -- EMC execs get millions in stock awards as part of their pay. The company detailed the 2015 pay packages of top executives recently in its annual proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The pay discrepancies come with EMC weighing in at less than half the annual revenue weight class of Dell. In its latest fiscal year, Dell's revenue was about $55 billion and EMC's was about $25 billion. However, EMC reported net income of $2.1 billion, while Dell reported a $1.1 billion loss.

CEO Joe Tucci's $1 million base salary is relatively close to the $950,000 CEO Michael Dell made last year, and while the salaries of other top Dell execs are perhaps in the ballpark with EMC's, total pay for EMC brass is consistently more.

Dell, which disclosed executive pay in a separate SEC filing connected to the proposed merger, wouldn't comment on how the company intends to square the pay packages of EMC executives with their new lives inside a privately held firm. Dell expects the acquisition, valued around $60 billion, to close between May and October.