Executive compensation is on the rise, so are CEOs' walk-away packages. More importantly, these golden parachutes are soaring into platinum levels.

Since 2000, 21 CEOs received severance packages that surpassed the $100 million mark, according to a report from GMI, which provides independent corporate governance research and analysis. That means each one of them brought home more than 2,000 times what a median American household made in 2010, according to data from the Census Bureau. And the combined value totaled almost $4 billion.

Such walk-away packages are designed to protect executives, primarily CEOs, from financial harm when they make M&A decisions that may be in the best interest of shareholders but that might lead to their losing their jobs.

However, GMI questioned whether the size of these rewards are really in the best interest of shareholders. Too many golden parachutes and too many retirement packages are of a size that clearly seems only in the interest of the departing executive, the report said.

These 10 CEOs left their helms as multimillion-dollar men.

CVS
Have CVS's shares bottomed at $31? REUTERS
Pfizer, BYU Go To Court In May, Celebrex and Millions Of Dollars At Stake
Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker, is scheduled to appear in court in May over Celebrex, a drug Bingham Young University and researcher Dr. Daniel Simmons claim royalties that could amount to millions to a billion dollars, according to a report in Deseret News. REUTERS
IBM
A man visits stand of US firm IBM at CeBIT computer fair in Hanover Reuters
Merck Co.
Merck is expected to earn 79 cents per share in the first quarter of 2013, down 20 percent from a year ago when it reported earnings of 99 cents per share. Merck
Capitol one bank
The Fed approved a deal to combine Capital One and ING. Reuters
Home Depot
A Home Depot store sign is seen in New York Reuters
ATT
AT&T is raising the price to upgrade a phone to $36. REUTERS
UnitedHealth Group
Logo UnitedHealth Group
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum have lined up $10.4 billion in financing for their natural gas joint venture project in Qatar. Reuters
General Electric
GE Reuters