Review of take-home pay for second-highest paid executives at associations shows dramatic increases, and also many departures

Generous bonuses and retirement payouts pushed a host of top staff at associations past the $1 million mark for take-home pay in recent years, according to a CEO Update analysis of the latest available association tax filings.

The review focused on the second-highest paid employees at associations with revenues of at least $12 million. Twenty-eight staffers examined by CEO Update earned more than $1 million in take-home pay in 2014 and 2015, the latest tax records show. By contrast, only 15 staffers earned more than $1 million the previous year.

Large bonuses propelled most of the executives past $1 million. Agnes Warfield-Blanc, senior vice president of development at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, earned base pay of $716,502, only a .5 percent increase from the year before. But she also earned a $3 million bonus and $274,421 supplemental pension, increasing her take-home pay for 2015 to slightly less than $4 million.

Warfield-Blanc was not the only Chamber staffer to push past the $1 million mark. The business group reported 10 staffers earning seven figures. Among them was former top lobbyist Bruce Josten, who earned more than $2.2 million, and former COO David Chavern, who earned $2 million. However, the analysis focused on the highest-paid employee at each group below CEO, so neither executive is reflected in this report.

CEO Update gathered compensation figures using Form 990 tax documents filed by associations with the IRS. Warfield-Blanc earned the most take-home pay of the employees examined. Paul Saltzman, former president of the Clearing House Association, was next with more than $3.6 million. He stepped down as second-in-command at the association in 2015 to join Deutsche Bank as vice chairman.

This year's list of top-paid staff was dominated by many high-profile departures—and their accrued payouts. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America CFO Del Persinger, who earned more than $2.6 million, retired in 2015 after a nine-year career at the association. Thomas Suber earned nearly $1.7 million as president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council—part of Dairy Management Inc. He retired after a 21-year career at the council.

Other notable departures include Michael Hunter, who retired as COO of the American Bankers Association; Henry Hart, formerly general counsel at the Society for Human Resource Management; and Scott Whitaker, who stepped down as COO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization to become CEO of the Advanced Medical Technology Association.