(NOTE: This story was originally posted to CRN.com May 22.)

What Do Your Top Leaders Make?

True or false: Salary made up at least half of the compensation last year for the 101 highest-paid executives from publicly traded distributors and channel partners.

False! The executives in the top 100 of CRN's 2016 Solution Provider 500 rankings raked in nearly $400 million of compensation last year, but only 16 percent ($63 million) of that came in the form of salary.

Nearly half ($197.7 million) of their total compensation came from stock awards, while an additional 9 percent ($37.8 million) came from option awards. Bonuses made up an additional 20 percent ($80.9 million) of the compensation package.

The companies with the highest number of executives near the top of our list include CSC (now DXC Technology), Accenture or Cognizant. CGI and Xerox Services (now Conduent) also had several leaders in the top 25, as well.

Publicly traded companies based in the U.S. are required to disclose the compensation of all named executive officers to the Securities and Exchange Commission before their annual shareholder meetings.