How the CEO pay data is obtained

The Seattle Times' CEO pay rankings are based on data from Equilar, an executive-compensation-research firm near San Francisco.

Equilar examined the pay packages of 128 CEOs at publicly traded companies headquartered in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Total compensation is the sum of base salary, cash bonuses, the grant-date value of new stock and option awards, and a catchall category called "other," which typically includes benefits and perks.

For companies that filed proxy statements on or after March 1, Equilar used the "summary compensation tables" in the filings to find out all components of CEO pay.

Companies that filed proxies before March 1 were covered by different disclosure rules. For them, Equilar used the summary compensation tables to find out salary, bonuses and other pay, and a separate table to get the grant-date value of new stock and option awards.

Equilar adjusted some equity-award values from those earlier filings to make compensation figures comparable to those filed by companies covered by the new disclosure rules.

All equity awards granted in fiscal 2009 were included, regardless of when they vest.

In cases where a company did not provide grant-date values of option awards, Equilar used the widely accepted Black-Scholes method and the company's own option-valuation assumptions.