The Advisors' Blog

Compensation Advisory Partners recently provided an early look at 2025 CEO pay levels, based on disclosures from 50 companies with fiscal years ending between August and October 2025. Here are some of their key findings:

– 2025 financial performance was generally flat to up.

– Median CEO total direct compensation increased +8% year over year, driven by a +9% increase in the grant-date value of long-term incentives (LTI).

– Annual incentive payout was up +4% generally due to increases in the target opportunity.

– [M]edian bonus payout for CEOs was around target (i.e., 98% of target).

– While median and 75th percentile payouts were consistent with the prior two years, we saw a modest rise in the 25th percentile payout due, in part, to fewer companies having a payout below 50% of target than in prior years.

– About 25% of companies increased the CEO’s bonus payout above the corporate funded amount through either individual performance or positive committee discretion.

Not surprisingly, that 25% of companies that increased the CEO’s payout mostly did so through an individual performance component.

In 2025, about a quarter of companies increased the CEO’s payout above the corporate funding factor. The average increase ranged from 8 – 50 percentage points above the funding factor. Most of these increases were provided through an individual performance component although some companies did so through a discretionary adjustment. When a company provides a positive discretionary adjustment, it typically does not raise a below target payout to above target. Only one company reduced the CEO’s payout in 2025.

– Meredith Ervine