Companies increasingly pay multimillion-dollar payments and perks to virtually every member of the executive suite, The New York Times said.

The payments are intended to make executives "whole" -- to treat them as if their careers had no costly interruptions.

Matching or exceeding earlier salaries, guaranteeing bonuses and giving millions of dollars in stock options are typical, the newspaper said.

On top of that, these executives often get credited by the new company for lucrative pension benefits for years they worked elsewhere.

The existence of the golden hello -- the opposite of rich "golden parachute" packages used to kick out executives -- undermines the very reason stock options and executive pensions are offered in the first place, critics charge.

Those perks were supposed to encourage executives to hit performance targets and stick around to receive the full value of their compensation package, the critics say.