Larry Culp, CEO of General Electric was the most highly-compensated executive in the U.S. in 2020.
That’s according to a new report by Equilar, which conducts the annual survey measuring CEO compensation.
Culp reportedly got a 208% increase in pay for a total of more than $72.7 million in annual compensation.
The following information is from Equilar. Links to the full report follow.
- CEO pay is down overall, if only ever-so-slightly. Median total compensation was $15.5 million for Equilar 100 CEOs in 2020, which represents a difference of 1.6% from the median $15.7 million awarded to the CEOs who appeared on the 2019 list.
- Changes in pay were focused on the near term. Median salary saw about a $50,000 decline when comparing the 2020 Equilar 100 to the 2019 list ($1,325,000 in 2020 vs. $1,373,561 in 2019). Meanwhile, the difference between the median annual cash bonus among CEOs from year to year was nearly $600,000 ($3.0 million in 2020 vs. $3.6 million in 2019).
CEO pay fell in 2020 at the largest U.S. companies, according to a new report from Equilar. The Equilar 100, an annual study of the 100 largest U.S. companies by revenue to file a proxy statement prior to March 31, found that total CEO compensation was $15.5 million at the median, down 1.6% from $15.7 million in the 2019 study.
Meanwhile, median revenue for the largest 100 companies to file by March 31, 2021 was $37.4 billion, up slightly from $37.3 billion the year prior.
These high-level trends mask the more nuanced — and polarized — impacts beneath the surface.
“The broad numbers show that leading U.S. companies collectively were resilient, but there was notable volatility at a company-by-company level, in harmony with the realities felt in the market,” said Dan Marcec, Senior Editor for Equilar and author of the report.
Despite the small decrease in median total compensation, 32 CEOs saw a smaller pay package in 2020 than in 2019, compared to just 23 who saw a dip the year earlier.
Furthermore, 56 companies in the Equilar 100 saw revenue declines in 2020, and 27 of those were double-digit losses. In 2019, just 23 companies among the Equilar 100 saw revenue drop, and just five saw losses greater than 10%.
Other key trends include a drop in the CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio. The median pay ratio for Equilar 100 companies in 2020 was 238:1, which was lower than 252:1 seen on the 2019 list.
In addition, fewer women are leading the largest companies than have been in previous years. There were just six women in the CEO position at Equilar 100 companies in 2020, in comparison to nine the previous two years. None of these women were among the top 10 highest paid.
