CEO pay watch: Ecolab's Baker: $2.5 million

Douglas Baker Jr., chairman, president and CEO Total compensation: $2,554,560 for the year ended Dec. 31, 2008

Salary: $1 million

Non-equity incentive pay: $1,397,000

Other compensation: $157,560

New stock options: 421,000

Total 2008 return to shareholders: -30.5 percent

Note: Baker's total compensation was down from the previous year's $8.2 million mainly because he exercised $5.1 million worth of stock options in 2007. With the stock price down in 2008, he exercised no stock options. Ecolab did boost Baker's base salary by $100,000, the last step in the compensation committee's four-year plan to bring Baker's salary closer to the market median for Ecolab's peer group.