Chipotle CEOs' insanely high pay was just cut in half

Chipotle co-CEOs Steve Ells and Monty Moran had their pay cut in half in 2015, compared to a year earlier.

Ells' pay dropped to $13.8 million in 2015 from $28.9 million in 2014, and Moran's pay dropped to $13.6 million from $28.1 million, according to a regulatory filing.

The declines came primarily from a lack of stock option rewards.

The CEOs were awarded no stock options in 2015, while each received $23.7 million in options the year before.

Chipotle's shares lost 30% of their value in 2015, following E. coli outbreaks linked its restaurants in 14 states. The stock is up roughly 6% so far this year.

Going forward, Chipotle said it's going to start partially tying executive bonuses to Chipotle's stock price.

Share prices would have to exceed $700 for 30 straight days to trigger the new stock awards, according to the filing.

The changes to the executives' compensation plans may please some shareholders, who have put pressure on Chipotle in the past to reduce it's generous pay for Ells and Moran.

The executives' pay packages in 2013, which totaled more than $67 million in 2013, were 10 times the median pay for CEOs at peer companies, the Denver Post reports, citing CtW Investment Group.

Chipotle pays workers an average of $8.57 an hour, according to Glassdoor, a wage higher than those of Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King.