“Last year, John R. Stafford, chairman of pharmaceutical giant Wyeth, earned $1.8 million in salary. He also was awarded a $1.97 million bonus, restricted stock valued at $724,283 and 630,000 stock options,” writes Ellen E. Schultz and Theo Francis in today’s Wall Street Journal.

“That much shareholders can learn from glancing at the company’s proxy.”

“But buried in footnotes are clues that Mr. Stafford, 64 years old, is entitled to another pot of money worth millions of dollars. He participates in a retirement program that allows executives to set aside, pretax, as much as 100% of their cash compensation. Wyeth guarantees them a 10% return on their deferred pay.”

“How valuable is that?”

“Last year Wyeth paid Mr. Stafford $3.8 million in interest on a deferred-compensation account valued at $37.75 million, according to calculations based on information in the company’s public filings. On top of that Wyeth gave him an additional $47,700 in matching contributions.”

“Super-sized salaries, sweetheart loans and generous stock options have come under fire as corruption scandals have prompted heavy scrutiny of executive compensation. But lurking behind those benefits is another goody swelling the pay packages of top executives. With hefty infusions of cash from their employers, senior officials at many large companies are accumulating big sums in their deferred-compensation accounts. It adds up to a massive, ever-ballooning and in most cases unknowable corporate liability.”

“All this means that the lawmakers and corporate compensation watchdogs who have railed against what they consider to be bloated executive pay in recent months have largely overlooked one of the biggest sources of executive compensation, worth a total of tens of millions of dollars to top officers.”

“’It’s the untold story of executive compensation,’ says Judith Fischer, managing director at Executive Compensation Advisory Services, an Alexandria, Va., consulting firm. ‘You can’t see how big it is, you can’t see how it’s growing. You can’t see what the total value to the executive is.’”