Ever wonder what the highest paid CEOs in America actually made back in the day? I was digging through some old market data and found this fascinating breakdown from 2009 that really puts things in perspective.

Back then, Larry Ellison at Oracle was sitting pretty at $84.5 million in total compensation. Hard to argue with that when Oracle stock had returned something like 10,000% since going public in 1988. The guy literally founded the company, so you can't really fault shareholders for rewarding that kind of long-term value creation.

But here's where it gets interesting. Not all the highest paid CEOs in America had equally impressive track records. Ray Elliott just took over at Boston Scientific with a $33.4 million package, yet the stock was down over 50% that year. Meanwhile, Ray Irani at Occidental Petroleum was consistently near the top of these lists despite running just the fourth-largest U.S. oil company. Shareholders were actually starting to push back on these kinds of pay packages.

Mark Hurd's HP situation was wild too. The guy had access to the company jet, HP even paid for his personal financial advisor. HP stock doubled during his tenure, but then fell 18.5% in the two years after. So yeah, justifying that compensation got harder pretty fast.

The thing that stood out to me was how much the highest paid CEOs in America varied in actual performance. Bob Iger at Disney? That one made sense. He delivered a 20% gain in one year, crushing the Dow. But A.G. Lafley at P&G earned $71 million over three years while the stock barely budged. The dividend stuff everyone credits him for? P&G had been raising it annually for over 50 years already.

What's wild is looking at the full list of highest paid CEOs in America from that era and realizing how much was pure luck versus actual skill. Some guys genuinely transformed their companies. Alan Mulally's turnaround at Ford? That looked legit. But others seemed to be riding industry tailwinds or just had solid boards that didn't push back on compensation committees.

Makes you wonder what the current highest paid CEOs in America actually deserve for their paychecks. Same old story, really.