CEO Compensation

Every few weeks, it seems another CEO voluntarily (or involuntarily) takes a pay cut for the greater good of his or her company. Since the financial crisis of 2008, this practice has become increasingly common.

A 2015 CEO Talent Summit Solutions Exchange, sponsored by Board Advisory

The best way for directors to align the company’s interests with the CEO’s is to max out stock incentives, right? Not necessarily. New research published in the Review of Financial Studies recommends a different approach to incentives that results in a more effective relationship between the CEO and board.

Spurred by the successes of women in shattering the glass ceiling to the corner office, the issue of how females are treated as business leaders continues to spawn fascinating new insights that CEOs and company owners – as well as their charges – can use to guide their decisions and their careers. The latest of these is a new study on female CEO pay.

Issues of pay equity from the C-suite all the way down to the lowest-paid workers are gaining currency as the U.S. labor market tightens, and investment and political activists continue to target CEOs, business owners and companies that seem vulnerable on the issue.

Private sector company CEOs saw their cash compensation increase 24% in fiscal 2013 compared to the previous year, to a total, including salary and bonuses, of $662,404, according to Chief Executive Research’s CEO & Senior Executive Compensation Report for Private Companies 2014-2015.  

While most headlines on CEO pay focus on the total compensation packages of the CEOs of the largest public companies, the reality is that the vast majority of CEOs did not enjoy multi-million dollar pay packages in 2013.

Transportation companies led all other industries in CEO salary with a median base salary of $330,000 in 2013 , according to the latest CEO & Senior Executive Compensation Report for Private Companies, 2014-2015, by Chief Executive Group.

Within weeks, the Securities and Exchange Commission is slated to adopt its final guidelines on implementing a new rule that will require most public companies to disclose the ratio of the total annual compensation of their CEO with the median pay of “all” of a company’s employees.

With proxy season upon us, board compensation committees find themselves having to defend the exec pay choices they made over the past year, and prove that they’re really “paying for performance.” Too bad so many boards and companies do such a poor job of telling this comp story. What are some of the biggest boners CEOs commit when selling your exec pay plans -- and how do you avoid them?