The Conference Board released its annual Top Executive Compensation report Wednesday. The not-for-profit claims that changes in CEO compensation were already underway this year - but unless one believes minor shifts in the allocation of huge pay packages qualify as true "changes," I see nothing but the status quo.

Key findings of the report include:

    * Compensation mix is reallocated towards stock. Almost all industries show a reallocation of compensation towards stock and away from total cash compensation and stock options. In financial services (non-banks), for example, the average percent of total compensation delivered in non-equity incentives fell by 2.62 percentage points (from 24.19 to 21.57).
    * Cash may be losing share-but the median CEO still earns more of it. Median cash compensation increased in more than two thirds of the industries studied (as did total compensation overall). The largest median gainer in cash compensation is insurance (up by 34.39 percent to $1,227,371). The only notable negative is construction, an outlier showing a 22.36 percent decrease.
    * Food and tobacco executives are the top earners. Among the 22 industries represented, food and tobacco shows the highest median CEO total compensation. It tops the list with $6.34 million in median total compensation, and $2.7 million in median total cash compensation, followed by utilities, insurance, and financial services (non-banks).
    * CEOs already have plenty of "skin in the game." Of the largest 10 percent of companies in the sample, the median CEO holds almost 100 times (99.97 percent) of his/her salary in total stock and stock options holdings in the company. Across industry, the largest median multiple (94.44) is seen in the financial services industry (non-banks), the smallest is commercial banks (23.31).