While these compensation totals are drawn from the company’s financial presentations, they are often estimates driven by companies ’attempts to value the actions their CEOs may receive. As a result, executives may earn less than these totals, especially if the bear market persists and their company’s stock prices remain depressed, but they could also take much higher amounts if the shares recover.
Many of the highest-ranking executives in the survey received much larger pay packages than those of much larger business leaders with much larger profits. For example, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, received his first capital award since 2011 last year and had a total compensation of $ 99 million, which placed him only in 13th place. the survey.
Despite the pay rise, shareholders, apparently believing it is tied to performance, have voted in favor of the majority of packages. Only 3 percent of “to say about salary” votes received less than 50% shareholder support during the year through June 3, according to an analysis of 1,444 public companies conducted by Willis Towers Watson, a consulting firm which advises companies on payment programs for executives and companies. government issues.
For several years, public companies have had to compare the pay of their CEO with that of a typical employee, the result of a regulation passed by Congress that sought to help investors assess the level of executive pay. Last year, CEOs earned 339 times more than the average salary of their companies ’employees, compared to 311 times in 2020, according to Equilar. The average salary of employees rose 10 percent last year, from $ 83,808 to $ 92,349.
The salaries of last year’s executives rose in part because boards of directors, who decide to compensate the top executive, wanted to reward senior executives for navigating their businesses through the pandemic.
In addition, the stock market recovered in 2021 and the value of stock subsidies, which normally make up the largest share of CEO compensation, was also higher. When stock prices rise, boards often say executives are doing a good job and paying them more.