The Advisors' Blog

We now have more data on CEO pay trends from 2026 proxy disclosures — this time from ISS-Corporate. They reviewed 2026 proxy disclosures by 318 companies in the S&P 500 with no CEO turnover in the last two years. Here’s what they found:

– Median CEO pay […] stood at $17.7 million. More than 74 percent of S&P 500 CEOs in the study received a pay increase while compensation fell for the remaining 26 percent.

– For the segment of companies that increased pay for their chief executives, the median change was 15.6 percent, while compensation decreased by a median of 9.5 percent among those companies where pay dropped.

– Notably, pay increased by more than $10 million for 27 CEOs, and 21 CEOs saw their pay more than double in 2025.

– Median CEO pay increased for these large cap companies by 10.6 percent from the 2025 to 2026 filing periods, the analysis found, representing an acceleration from the 7.5 percent rise observed between the 2024 and 2025 filing periods.

While increases in base salary were modest, as is often the case, growth was primarily driven by an increase in the value of new equity awards.

– Meredith Ervine