McGraw-Hill CEO is paid 28 percent less in 2009

NEW YORK

McGraw-Hill Cos. Chief Executive Harold McGraw III received a compensation package the company valued at $5.9 million in 2009, a 28 percent decline from a year earlier, according to an Associated Press calculation of figures released in a regulatory filing.

McGraw received a salary of $1.4 million, up about 3 percent from the previous year. He also got a performance-based cash bonus of $1.3 million. McGraw did not receive such a bonus in 2008.

Most of the decline in McGraw's pay package came in stock-based compensation. In 2009, he received stock and options were worth about $2.8 million when they were granted. In 2008, he received similar awards valued at $6.3 million.

McGraw also received other compensation of $475,174 in 2009, including retirement plan contributions. In 2008, he received other compensation of $630,827.

McGraw's 2009 compensation was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 25.

The AP's executive pay calculation aims to isolate the value the company's board placed on the CEO's total compensation package. The figure includes salary, bonus, incentives, perks and the estimated value of stock options and awards.

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 SEC, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executives compensation in the previous fiscal year.

In 2008, McGraw's compensation package was valued at $8.2 million.

McGraw-Hill, the New York-based publisher of textbooks and BusinessWeek magazine and owner of the ratings agency Standard & Poor's, recorded a 9 percent decline in profit in 2009. Revenue dropped 6 percent for the year.

McGraw-Hill will hold its annual meeting on April 28.