Strong Returns Lift Pay for Software CEOs
By: Wall Street Journal
June 18, 2019
PayPal Holdings Inc.’s PYPL -1.79% Daniel Schulman collected a pay package totaling $37.8 million in 2018, making him one of the highest-paid bosses in the S&P 500. But for Mr. Schulman and many of his fellow CEOs in the software industry, big paydays were backed by healthy returns.
Most companies selling software and related services thrived last year, with half delivering a total shareholder return of at least 10.3%, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows. That success translated to their CEOs, who received a median raise of 11.7%.
By contrast, median shareholder return for S&P 500 companies as a group was minus 5.8%, the first negative showing of any postrecession year. Despite those losses, most CEOs got a raise and the median pay reached $12.4 million last year.
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