January 5, 2021
Mid-Cap Annual & Long-Term Incentive Comp Trends
– Lynn Jokela
Before the end of the year, I blogged about incentive compensation trends for large-cap companies. ClearBridge Compensation Group recently issued a companion report examining incentive compensation trends for mid-cap companies over the last 10 years. Here are some of the findings:
Annual Incentive Plans
– Like large-cap companies, almost all are formulaic, shifting away from discretionary plans for making bonus determinations
– Most companies use two or three performance measures
– Most common performance measure is an earnings-based measure, with EBIT/operating income being the most prevalent
Long-Term Incentive Plans
– In 2020, 86% of companies have granted at least one performance-vested vehicle, up significantly from 2010 when it was 46%
– Use of time-vested stock options has decreased even more significantly for mid-cap companies –65% in 2010 compared to 25% in 2020
– Like large-cap companies, most time-vested restricted stock/units and time-vested stock options/SARs vest ratably over the vesting period, a minority of companies use cliff vesting
– In 2020, 69% of companies used multiple performance measures compared to 52% in 2010
– Earnings-based measures are the most prevalent (58%), followed by stock-based measures such as TSR (54%) most typically measured on a relative basis
– A majority of companies (52%) used only absolute performance measures, down slightly from 2010 (62%). Relative performance measures, most typically stock-price based measures, are usually measured against a customized comparator group