Big Oil lost big money last year and laid off thousands. Most oil CEOs got raises.

Last year was pretty brutal for oil companies, with the sharp drop in oil prices slashing about $200 billion in stock market value from the largest public energy firms. But most chief executives got a raise anyway, The Wall Street Journal notes, even if some of their total compensation packages shrank along with their company's share prices.

At Exxon Mobil, for example, chief executive Rex Tillerson's salary rose 6 percent, to $3 million, while his total pay package dropped 18 percent, to $27.3 million. At Chevron, CEO John Watson got a 3 percent raise but saw his total compensation drop 15 percent to $22 million, thanks to changes in his pension benefits. Anglo-Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Burden's pay fell 13 percent, to about $5.5 million, and his overall 2015 package dropped 81 percent, including pension modifications. But BP CEO Bob Dudley saw a 20 percent jump in pay last year, to $19.6 million, even as BP lost $5.2 billion.

Some shareholders aren't thrilled with the 2015 pay packages and plan to vote against them in nonbinding votes; BP shareholders are voting today. The 25,000 workers being laid off at the top four Western oil companies probably aren't amused, either. Even before the oil crash, the annualized returns of Exxon, Shell, Chevron, and BP have underperformed versus the S&P 500 over the past five years; in the same period, those four companies' CEOs earned a combined $500 million.

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