American CEOs weren't reduced to clipping coupons in 2013. But activists who chronically complain about outrageous CEO compensation should be somewhat mollified by the second consecutive year of mediocre CEO comp increases.

The top line on a Towers Watson analysis of proxy materials from 430 public companies is that average CEO comp rose just a half a percent in 2013, compared to 5.7 percent in 2012.

The analysis is based on a formula that includes the value of a CEO's pension, and that's where the trouble occurred. Pension value was whacked by increasing interest rates last year and proved to be a huge damper on CEO comp.

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Dan Cook

Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.