A WSJ article titled "Firms Measure a CEO's (Net) Worth" examines the admittedly uncommon, but perhaps growing, practice of company boards taking stock of how much they have paid a CEO over his or her entire tenure when setting pay:

Last year, directors of fund manager Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. looked at the roughly $70 million Chief Executive Henry Herrmann had collected in stock, pension benefits and deferred compensation over his 36-year career, and deemed it "sufficient" for retirement, according to its proxy statement. The board stopped extra contributions to Mr. Herrmann's retirement fund.

Waddell & Reed is among a growing number of companies scrutinizing how much they have paid executives over time. Nearly 15% of Fortune 500 firms said they took such "accumulated wealth" into account in setting 2007 executive pay, up from 8.4% in 2006, according to data tracker Equilar Inc. Part of the increase is due to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is encouraging companies to disclose the role of historical pay in their compensation decisions. Few acknowledge reducing CEO pay or benefits, as Waddell & Reed did.