June 23, 2021
Highest-Paid CEOs: 2020’s “Top 10” Are Nearly All New to The List
As we cross the high-point of proxy and annual meeting season, Equilar and the NYT recently released their annual look at CEO pay levels for the 200 highest-paid CEOs. Liz blogged about one aspect of the analysis.
It’s also worth visiting Equilar’s interactive chart that analyzes the pay of the 200 CEOs included in the study. It’s sortable by total compensation, change in comp value year over year, the company’s CEO pay ratio and median employee pay, company revenue and change in revenue year over year. Here are some of the findings:
For the first time since 2014, none of the 10 highest-paid CEOs had been in the top 10 in the previous study. Only one of the 10 highest-paid CEOs has been among the top 10 in the past (Regeneron’s CEO). This trend is due chiefly to the fact that there were five newly public companies represented among the top 10, as well as a CEO recently new to his position (DaVita’s CEO).
COVID-19 has had an uneven effect on corporations, often dependent on industry, but the market overall has reached continual highs in the past year. While CEO pay increased due to rising equity values, cash compensation (salary and bonus) was lower in 2020 than the previous year on balance, even among these highest-paid executives. Salary for Equilar 200 CEOs dipped 3.7% at the median from the previous year, while the median cash bonus fell 5.2%.
Meanwhile, median employee pay for the firms included on this year’s list actually increased, albeit modestly, rising 1.9%. While it would be difficult to argue that CEOs suffered as employees benefited in 2020, fixed pay for executives was held to the same standards as that of the median employee across the market in 2020.
– Lynn Jokela