Times are good for the executives at the top of the food chain at IBM.

Current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ginny Rometty and Sam Palmisano, who before he retired preceded her in both positions, pulled down more than $38 million in compensation for 2012, according to IBM (NYSE: IBM) filings on Monday.

Calculations of their earnings were made by Bloomberg news and The Associated Press.

Rometty, 55, who took the CEO job in January 2012 and then became chairman when Palmisano retired in October, earned $16.2 million in compensation, including $9.26 million in stock awards.

The total figure was almost double the $8.3 million she made the previous year, when she was a senior vice president in charge of sales at IBM, the company said Monday in a filing.

The pay package included $1.5 million in salary and $3.92 million in non-stock incentive pay.

Stock Awards

As with most CEOs, most of Rometty’s compensation consisted of long-term stock awards that could wind up being worth more or less than the $9.3 million listed in the initial disclosures.

Rometty got off to a solid start, focusing on growing IBM’s software business, which has higher profit margins, over hardware.

The Armonk, N.Y.-based company’s adjusted earnings climbed 13 percent from the previous year under Palmisano and it forecast 2013 results above analyst expectations. Its stock price edged up just 4 percent last year, though, lagging the 7 percent gain in the Dow Jones industrial average, which consists of 30 bellwether stocks, including IBM’s.

Palmisano, who had been IBM’s CEO for a decade, served as a senior adviser to the company after retiring as chairman. He received a total 2012 package valued at $22.3 million, by AP’s calculations. That’s slightly less than the $24.2 million he received in his final year as CEO, but more than the roughly $21 million that he made annually from 2007 through 2010.

Rometty’s perks valued at $687,725, including more than $304,000 for personal travel on the company’s airplanes. The AP’s formula counts salary, bonuses, perks and stock and options awarded to the executive during the year. It doesn’t include changes in retention and pension plans, two factors that IBM Corp. listed in its summary of Rometty’s calculation.

Rometty runs the ninth-largest company by market value and has emerged as one of the best-paid female leaders in corporate America, topping the level of Meg Whitman and other high-profile CEOs. Whitman earned $15.4 million at Hewlett-Packard Co. in 2012 — only 70 percent of her targeted compensation because the struggling company missed its goals for the year. PepsiCo Inc.’s Indra Nooyi, meanwhile, received $17.1 million in 2011. Her pay for last year hasn’t been released yet.

Chairman Role

Rometty’s pay reflects a bump in incentive compensation that took effect on Oct. 1, the day Rometty added the job of chairman to her duties. When she took on the CEO role earlier in the year, she became IBM’s ninth chief executive and its first female leader, following stints in services, sales, strategy and marketing. During her rise up the ladder, she oversaw the integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, helping IBM build a staff of more than 100,000 consultants.

If IBM calls on Palmisano’s expertise after his retirement, he will be paid $20,000 in in consulting fees for days he provides more than four hours of service and $10,000 for days he provides less, IBM said.

IBM shares fell 0.1 percent to $210.08 Monday in New York. The stock has climbed 9.7 percent this year.

The company employs some 10,000 people across North Carolina.

[IBM ARCHIVE: Check out more than a decade of IBM stories as reported in WRAL Tech Wire.]