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CenturyTel CEO's 2008 Compensation Valued At $7.6M

The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The chairman and chief executive of telecommunications company CenturyTel Inc. received compensation valued at $7.6 million in 2008, a 15 percent decline from the previous year, according to a regulatory filing Friday.

According to a proxy statement the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Glen F. Post III received a base salary of $1 million last year, the same as in 2007.

Post also received $864,500 of incentive-based awards, a decline of 36 percent from $1.4 million in the previous year. CenturyTel, which agreed to buy Embarq Corp. last year, posted a decline in its 2008 earnings, but its fourth-quarter profit still beat Wall Street's expectations.

Post was also awarded other compensation totaling $1.1 million, a 90 percent jump from a year earlier that was largely due to restricted stock dividends. In 2008, Post received $605,795 in restricted stock dividends, a sharp increase from $48,672 in 2007 because the company raised its quarterly dividend rate in mid-2008.

Other perks included a cash allowance of $34,320, along with $4,536 for a physical exam and $15,000 for aircraft use.

In addition, Post received $193,901 in insurance premiums paid, $131,164 in tax reimbursements for these premiums and $94,340 in what the company called "plan contributions," which generally refer to retirement plans.

Post's compensation package also included $4.65 million in restricted stock, a 23 percent decline from the prior year.

The AP's total pay calculations include executives' salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Monroe, La.-based CenturyTel's shares lost 34 percent of their value in 2008.