February 29, 2024
Director Pay Limits: Current Levels for the S&P 500
As Liz blogged last October, more and more companies are adopting annual limits on director pay, which became a common consideration in the wake of Delaware’s Investor Bancorp opinion. If you’re proposing a new plan this proxy season, this Pay Governance memo on director compensation discusses current levels of director compensation limits among S&P 500 companies.
Practice is split between defining annual limits as equity-based awards only or defining limits as a total of all cash and equity-based compensation. Both definitions have a median value of $750,000.
A limited number of S&P 500 companies define cash-only annual non-employee director pay limits with a median value of $500,000.
– Meredith Ervine