Ok, sure, Charter Communications hasn't been profitable since the company went public in 1999, posted a $2.45 billion loss last year, constantly ranks at the bottom of most customer satisfaction surveys, is swimming in debt, and was just forced into bankruptcy and reorganization -- but at least they pay their CEO well. According to the St. Louis Business Journal, Charter CEO Neil Smit was paid $7.4 million in cash compensation for 2008, taking him to the top of St. Louis’ highest-paid executives. Despite all of Charter's problems lately and their $0.02 stock price, Charter apparently felt the need to pay Smit double the salary from the year before. Remember back in 2007 when Neil spent a few hours sampling Charter call center work in order to better understand the company, only to fail at improving the company's customer service? Yeah, good times.