Size & CEO Pay

size and ceo pay graph with elon musk ahead

Size & CEO Pay Part 2 in series: “What Matters in CEO Pay?” Size matters. Both company size and CEO pay size matter a lot! While this doesn’t seem like a wild statement, this fact gets tested over and over, most recently with one of the most widely- known executives in the world, Elon Musk, […]

Compensation Committee Considerations 2024

committee meeting taking place

At this time last year, 72% of CEOs were expecting a recession in 2023. While the circumstances underlying that prediction have evolved (hypergrowth and hyper-inflation have tapered off), and the Russell 1,000 has returned 18.3% YTD. In short, the market is volatile and predictions are difficult!Over the past year, as we have worked with our […]

Nonprofit Compensation Primer: What You Should Know

Compensation in the nonprofit sector remains a topic of keen interest and occasional debate. Many assume that working for a cause should mean lower salaries and little to no incentive opportunities. However, the reality is that competitive compensation is critical to attracting and retaining talented professionals who can make the most significant impact. This post […]

Telling the Compensation Story Through Reported and Realizable Executive Compensation

realizable compensation

Executive compensation is a hot topic in the corporate governance world.  The discussion and evaluation of the fairness of executive pay practices has ramped up considerably since the arrival of Dodd-Frank, evolving as investor expectations and disclosure trends among public issuers have changed. Last year, the SEC finalized disclosure rules on how companies should communicate […]

CEO to NEO Pay Index Matters

CEO to NEO pay index

When we conducted a three year (2019 – 2022) pay and performance comparison of the top ~2,000 public companies (by market cap), we found CEO pay that was too far removed from the other named executive officers (NEOs) resulted in an inefficient relationship between the amount of compensation delivered and shareholder return generated. Specifically, companies […]

Solving Compensation Whiplash

compensation whiplas

Compensation Whiplash ™ – the movement of compensation up and/or down so rapidly it gives you a headache. The recent labor market has hit HR/Compensation departments with a nasty concoction of variables – unprecedented labor market volatility, commodity price swings, hyperinflation, the great resignation, silent resignations, remote work, DEI, and 5 generations working together at […]

Long-Term Incentive Plans in Private Companies

Long-Term Incentives

For the past 16 years, long-term incentives (LTI) in private companies have significantly increased. According to WorldatWork, the prevalence of LTIs in private companies increased from 35% in 2007 to 62% in 2019. Given the current hyper-competitive market combined with volatile macro conditions of 2023 and beyond, the majority of private companies in every US […]

Incentive Plan Decision Making

incentive plan design

While Pay versus performance disclosures will headline most executive pay stories, the real cruxt of the matter is designing pay + performance programs. Many public, private and not for profit company boards and management are asking how to set pay for stretch and who should design the incentive plan mechanics. We provide simple guiding principles. […]

SEC’s Pay Versus Performance – 2023 Early Impressions

pay vs performance insights 2023

SEC’s Pay Versus Performance – 2023 Early Impressions As we head into March and the start of proxy season, the SEC’s newly required Pay Versus Performance disclosures are front of mind for many that deal with compensation and corporate governance. The Commission just recently released some *timely* clarifications on their rules, called Compliance & Disclosure […]