WASHINGTON - THE value of top executives's pensions rose an average of 19 per cent last year even as their companies' share prices dropped, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Over 200 executives saw pensions jump over 50 per cent. The spike, the Journal said, was due in part to 'generous' pension formulas based on executive pay and to 'arcane' techniques that trigger the increases.

Executive pensions grew even though the share prices at the firms dropped an average of 37 per cent in 2008, while many companies froze employee pensions and suspended contributions to retirement plans, noted the newspaper. Its analysis was based on two years of disclosures from 340 of the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.

The journal cited as an example pharmaceutical company Merck & Co chief executive Richard Clark, who saw the value of his pension jump from US$11.9 million (S$16.7 million) to $21.7 million, thanks in part to a $6 million rise in the portion of his compensation used to calculate his pension.

By including 'certain incentive payments' in the compensation used to calculated its CEO's pension, oil giant ConocoPhillips boosted Jim Mulva's pension by $9.5 million to reach $68.2 million.

Exxon Mobil chief executive Rex Tillerson's $4 million bonus helped bring his pension from $23 million to $30 million, because the company uses the top three bonuses in the five years prior to retirement to calculate executive pensions. -- AFP