CEO Pay Just Jumped to Its Highest Level Since 2013

CEO Pay Just Jumped to Its Highest Level Since 2013

"CEO pay at the 500 largest U.S. public companies increased by 6.1 percent in 2016 --the biggest jump since 2013," according to new research from Equilar and cited by Fortune (June 22, Thakker). The firm's 2017 CEO Pay Trends report finds that companies are increasingly paying their chief executives based on performance and steering away from offering bonuses and stock options. The median pay package came in at around $11 million. "Median CEO pay packages consistently climbed each year over the five-year study period examined for this report," Matthew Goforth, Equilar Research Manager, writes in the report. "At the same time, boards continue to tweak incentive pay to align CEO interests with both company strategy and shareholder returns over the long term." Just 50 percent of the companies offered CEO stock options during the study period, with pay hikes being viewed as a better long-term incentive. Nearly 82 percent of Equilar 500 companies opted for the latter last year.