The 10 Best-paid execs (Read it and eat your heart out)

Talk about working hard for their money, some of these dudes make more money before lunch on Monday than you do all year.

Corporate women made impressive strides in 2006, taking charge at a slew of giant companies, and bringing in big paychecks to boot.

The top-earning woman executive is Safra Catz, president and CFO of Oracle (Charts), who took home a cool $26.1 million in total compensation last year, according to Equilar, Inc., a San Mateo, Calif.-based compensation research firm, which calculated the results for Fortune magazine. Second-highest paid is Susan Decker, CFO of Yahoo! (Charts), who brought in $24.3 million. Handsome sums indeed, but not nearly enough to land them on Fortune's list of 10 highest-paid executives overall.

The 10 execs who enjoy that distinction each collected more than $48 million in total compensation last year - much of it coming in the form of restrictive stock or stock options - and all of them are men.

No. 1 earner Eugene Isenberg, CEO of Nabors Industries (Charts), brought home $71.4 million in 2005, according to Equilar. Other members of the top 10 include Occidental Petroleum (Charts) CEO Ray Irani, who made $70 million; Yahoo chairman and CEO Terry Semel, who earned $56.8 million (more than double CFO Decker's pay); and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who made $52.3 million (double what Catz, the company's president and CFO, took home).

http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/03/news/newsmakers/mpwpay/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote