May 24, 2012
2011 Top 250 Executive Compensation Report
– Broc Romanek, CompensationStandards.com
A while back, Frederic W. Cook’s 2011 Top 250 executive compensation report came out:
Key findings from the study include the following:
– For the first time in the history of this report, the use of long-term performance shares now is more prevalent than the use of stock options, while the prevalence of time-vesting restricted stock awards appears to have stabilized.
– Stock options continue to decrease in prevalence, but are not expected to go away, as they are by nature a performance based long-term incentive vehicle and a common complement to full-value share awards.
– Variations of basic grant types (like “premium” or “performance accelerated” stock options), common in years gone by, have dwindled and are on the brink of extinction, perhaps casualties of greater transparency and simplicity in a say on pay environment.
– Vesting periods of awards, and performance periods for performance awards, remain stable at 3 years.
– The use of profit measures and total shareholder return in long-term performance plans continues to be the most widely used performance categories, and the prevalence of types of measures used for performance awards has stabilized.