The highest-paid CEOs by state Here are the top-paid CEOs by state for 2020, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm. The survey considered only publicly traded companies with more than $1 billion in revenue that filed their proxy statements with federal regulators between Jan. 1 and April 30. Not every state has such a company headquartered there. The survey includes only CEOs who have been in place for at least two years, but it does not limit the survey to companies in the SP 500, as the APs general compensation study does. To calculate CEO pay, Equilar adds salary, bonus, stock awards, stock option awards, deferred compensation and other components that include benefits and perks. For some companies, big raises can occur when CEOs get a stock grant in one year as part of a multi-year grant. Median pay for SP 500 CEOs was $12.7 million last year. Median means half made more, and half made less. ___ Alabama: Edward K. Aldag, Jr., Medical Properties Trust, $16.9 million Arizona: Joseph M.